The Garden of Love

This poem has a very regretful and almost eerie tone. Blake speaks of this garden of love where he used to romp and play, and now the chapel which plasters over  the remains of it. The flowers, replaced with graves, and the playground now guarded by priests marching to an ominous beat "priests in black gowns were walking their rounds" Blake does a good job giving you a creepy feeling, almost like you can hear the marching beats. The imagery Blake uses in this eludes me to think the garden of love may be referring to romances of his younger days. He longs for these past loves, but tables have turned. His past love will no longer play along "the gates of this chapel were shut’. Did she find a new love? Did she pass away? The innocent relations that Blake remembers, and longs for -"where I used to play on the green" are now condemned by the words "thou shalt not commit adultery” on the door of the chapel that took over this childhood day memories. This garden, is no longer, his own sanctuary replaced with a darker, more viscous sanctuary of this time. 

The abrupt ending to Blake’s poem makes me think of his desires affiliated with this garden, or now, lack thereof.