William Blake Essay

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Blake describes the chapel “And the gates of this Chapel were shut and ‘Thou shalt not’, writ over the door…”(5-6). The image of the gates of this chapel being shut represents the restrictions of the church and how their structure conflicts with nature. IN the last stanza of this poem, Blake says, “And priests in black gowns were walking their rounds, And binding with briars my joys and desires” (11-12). The priests wearing black suggests the dark nature of anything affiliated with the church, and the darkness the church has brought to not only this “Garden of Love” but the world in general. When Blake says “binding with briars my joys and desires” , he is using the image of the binding to show the literal incumbent of things the church forces everyone to follow. Blake does not agree with the idea of religion, but he disagrees with the involvement of the church within our daily lives.

Because Blake was a Romantic, he had a huge appreciation for nature at it’s untouched and natural state. Through these poems, especially “Garden of Love”, Blake is trying to show us the contrast between the involvement of man, like in the church, versus the natural world. William Blake reminisces about his youth and how it used to be before the world was corrupted by man. Throughout his poetry, Blake shows us the effects man has on the natural world, and wishes for all of mankind to return to a more innocent and untouched promise land.