William Blake (1757-1827). The Garden of Love. William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. 1909. The Book of Georgian Verse

William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Georgian Verse. 1909.

The Garden of Love

By William Blake (1757–1827)


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,	5
And ‘Thou shalt not’ writ over the door:
So I turned to the Garden of Love
That so many sweet flowers bore;

And I saw it was fillèd with graves,
And tomb-stones where flowers should be:	10
And Priests in black gowns were walking their rounds,
And binding with briars my joys and desires.