“The Garden of Love” is a poem by the British Romantic poet and painter William Blake (1757 – 1827) . The speaker in this poem visits a garden where he used to play. But instead of sweet flowers and greenery he finds that a controlling religion has ruined the natural expression of joy and love in the garden. Blake was religious man but through his work he would also criticize organized religion and the oppression of free thought.
I kept the arrangement very simple for this song, only a fingerpicking electric guitar and my vocals.
The Garden of Love
Poem by William Blake
I went to the Garden of Love,
And saw what I never had seen:
A Chapel was built in the midst,
Where I used to play on the green.
And the gates of this Chapel were shut,
And 'Thou shalt not' writ over the door;
So I turn'd to the Garden of Love,
That so many sweet flowers bore.
And I saw it was filled with graves,
And tomb-stones where flowers should be:
And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds,
And binding with briars, my joys & desires.
