The Garden of Love

Today, I read a few of William Blake's poems. I was "wowed" by them. This one felt especially meaningful. Religious "stuckness" has been floating around in my thinking all this week. This poem seemed to fit into this frame of mind. It has some powerful imagery for me to consider.

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 turned 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 and desires.

                                                       William Blake (1757-1827)

Art:http://www.wordsworth.org.uk/poetry/index.asp?pageid=175