The Garden of Love
"The Garden of Love": A Venture into a Poet's Past of Promiscuity Titles of poems are often derived from actual content of the passage, though the title itself may not reflect the poem's tone and meaning. That deems quite true with William Blake's poem "The Garden of Love," as the symbolic name of the poem does not describe what one expects to read after addressing the title. Instead, "The Garden of Love" is a figurative designation to a man's past of promiscuity and guiltless pleasure. Blake ventures back to a place he has obviously been before and attempts to return to his past of immoral behavior after having gone through some sort of transition. The imagery created around the religious symbols reveals Blake's transition was the commitment to marriage before his return to the playground and the graves are metaphors for the loss of previous lovers. With the images of a cemetery and the binding actions of the priests that symbolize the action of marriage, Blake admits his regret of making t
Instead, the reader is revealed a metaphorical description of the regrets of the poet's pledge to matrimony. Where he was once allowed to play liberally now stands an inalterable symbol of his commitment to monogamy. This poem proves Blake's idea of love to be incongruous to the conventional analysis of love. The only change so far is the chapel in the midst, a perceptible demonstration of marriage. Though Blake has already expressed that he favors his life of free love over marriage in the first stanza, he still approaches the Chapel that represents his lamented promise to his spouse within the second stanza. He uses strong expression in describing the actions of the priests, as they make it impossible for him to experience his "joys and desires. The "flowers" he refers to are the sex objects he found refuge in on his playing green. The garden itself and playing green represent Blake's belief that the freedom and lack of responsibility before matrimony are much more inviting than the commitment he has made to his wife. The priests are dressed in black, which embodies Blake's opinion of the rules of his marriage laid out by the church. Blake found the gates closed because he conceives marriage as a shutting down if independence and freedom. The tombstones represent his overall inability to return to a life of innocent sexual pleasure and the death of his excitement to do so. The symbolism and tone prove Blake's concept of love and marriage quite contradictory to the commonly accepted view of love. " This poem is Blake's individual relation of a venture into a past of promiscuity and adulterous sex. The script upon the shut door read, "Thou shalt not" and immediately reminds both the reader and author of the God's commandment to never commit adultery (line 6).
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