The Garden of Love

[Guest guest]

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 and desires.

 

William Blake, The Garden of Love

>From "Songs of Experience" (1794)