Analysis of Poem, The Garden of Love

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Analysis of Poem, The Garden of Love from William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience

Blake’s poems are divided into two sections, Songs of Experience and Songs of Innocence. Under Songs of Innocence, Blake seems to present his readers with innocence as freedom from sin, moral wrong, and guilt. In Songs of Experience, Blake seems to present the faults and sufferings of mankind.

Innocence and experience are contradictory viewpoints. When one is innocent, one is not aware, therefore one is lacking experience. Experience, on the other hand, is having knowledge and knowing what to expect. In "The Garden of Love," experience and innocence are symbiotic dichotomies. The experience is issuing from the speaker’s statement of being to this garden more than once, meaning innocence is also a component of experience: "A chapel was built in the midst, / Where I used to play on the green" (3-4).

Although the speaker doesn’t see the chapel the first time he goes to the garden, the Chapel might have been built since his earlier visit. Blindness is the speaker’s innocence. The sp...

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