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William BlakeA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
The Garden is the dominant image in the poem and the setting for all the events. The image evokes two gardens in the Christian Old Testament. One is the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve loved without shame and self-consciousness, innocent and uninhibited. Such is the play of the children in the speaker’s childhood. When the speaker rediscovers the garden, it is in the state similar to Eden after the Fall, with the corresponding repression and prohibition. A second garden in The Old Testament is found in the Song of Songs or Song of Solomon. In this poem, garden imagery is used as a metaphor for sexual enjoyment. Modern Christian interpretations of the poem, however, reframe the erotic as spiritual, and therefore devalue the importance of sexual expression.
The flowers in the garden are also symbolic, as a representation of nature and its beauty. They contrast strongly with the man-made chapel, the physical expression of the unnatural laws and dictates created by the Church to contain and limit human expression. There are no longer flowers to be found in the garden, as they have been replaced by tombstones and graves.
By William Blake
A Poison Tree
A Poison Tree
William Blake
Auguries of Innocence
Auguries of Innocence
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London
London
William Blake
Night
Night
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Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Songs of Innocence and of Experience
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The Book of Thel
The Book of Thel
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The Chimney Sweeper
The Chimney Sweeper
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The Lamb
The Lamb
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The Little Boy Found
The Little Boy Found
William Blake
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
William Blake
The Sick Rose
The Sick Rose
William Blake
The Tyger
The Tyger
William Blake
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