Garden Of Love

Question 1

Who wrote this poem

Answer 1

William Blake

Question 2

What is the structure of the poem

Answer 2

• Three stanzas, 12 lines total
• ABCB rhyme scheme
• Anapestic trimeter & tetrameter
• Internal rhyme

Question 3

Give some context of the writer

Answer 3

• English romantic poet
• His parents were Dissenters, Protestant Christian’s
• illustrator, painter and an engraver
• Publicly expressed criticism for organised religion and Church of England
• Influential
• Romantic Movement

Question 4

Give context of the poem

Answer 4

• Published in 1789
• Unnamed speaker
• Religious Imagery
• Hatred of organised religion
• First-person narrative voice
• Bitter-sweet tone in referencing the garden
• richly symbolic landscape
• A symbol of wider humanity
• Childhood

Question 5

What themes are explored in this poem

Answer 5

• Love
• Religion
• Unattainable love/barriers to love

Question 6

What quotations in this poem parallel quotations in the great Gatsby

Answer 6

• “It was filled with graces and tomb-stones where flowers should be”
• “Ash-grey men, who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air”- chapter 2

• “Where I used to play on the green”
• “A fresh green breast of the new world” chapter 9

Question 7

How is the theme of love explored in the poem, give quotations and meanings

Answer 7

• Religion against love, unnecessary restrictions; “Thou shalt not”. Prohibitions from embracing joy, desire and community.

• Barreness of the land when love is lacking. “tomb-stones”, “graves”

• “flowers” represent love, beauty, nature and abundance which is a natural contrast from the chapel which is man-made. Reclamation of the Garden of love is necessary to restore the love that was associated with it before.

Question 8

How is the theme of religion explored in this poem, give quotations and meanings

Answer 8

• Religious Imagery

• Garden of Eden- Paradise, biblical allusion to a state of innocence and it is only after religion is imposed on it that it becomes degraded which led to organised religion to prevent sin.

• Controversial perspective because it presents religion as restrictive as opposed to enlightening

• The priests reinforce the joyless, serious world of adulthood. Black clothes suggest the death of childhood. Organised religion locks people out of love.

• Call of freedom from religious structures and a return to a childlike state of carefree expression

Question 9

How is the structure of the poem symbolic ?

Answer 9

• Simple form expresses clear argument
• First stanza- return to the past
• Second stanza- transformation
• Third stanza- ominous in tone
• Quadratic form summons ballad metre used in popular oral poetry

Question 10

What lines uses internal rhyme

Answer 10

Final two lines of the final stanza

Question 11

What does the final rhymes in the poem convey?

Answer 11

A sense of anger

Question 12

What is the significance of the use of metre

Answer 12

The refusal by of the poem to settle into a regular Anapestic meter perhaps reflects that it is a poem about conflict- a conflict between love and organized religion

Question 13

What is the purpose of end-stopped lines in this poem

Answer 13

• Subtle sense of resignation and acceptance
• Simplicity

Question 14

What figure of speech is used in the following words
• “Garden of love”
• “flowers”
• “Chapel”

Answer 14

• Repetition
• Flowers are a symbol of joy and beauty, indicates abundance
• chapel symbolises strangling of the spirit, lifelessness

Question 15

What figure of speech is used in the following words and what is its purpose
• “so”, “bore”, line 8 similar vowels
• “binding”, “briars” and “desires”, line 12

Answer 15

• Assonance
• Reluctance to accept changes

Question 16

What figure of speech is used in the following words and state it’s significance.
“Gates”, “Shut”, “Shalt not” and “writ”

Answer 16

• Consonance of the letter ‘t’
• binding and negativity
• Locks people out of a relationship with God as opposed to welcoming them in

Question 17

What are the similarities and differences between this poem and At an inn

Answer 17

Similarities
• Both poems use allusions to the past and refer to a place where love was harboured more strongly, they both do this in the first person to highlight the transformation of their love

• “I used to play on the green”/ “veiled smiles bespoke their thought/of what we were”

• “I saw it was filled with graves”/“Love lingered numb”

Question 18

What are the similarities and differences between the garden of love and remember

Answer 18

Similarities
• A sense of loss, sentimental, nostalgic tone and language

• Religious Imagery affirm both of the author’s personal convictions

Differences
• Childhood memory / love for a childhood place over address to a lover

• TGL has a direct, simple message about organised religion being constructive and limiting love. The speaker in ‘Remember’ wants her lover to remember her but mid-way through she acknowledges that they may not.