Sacred Texts  Legends and Sagas  England  Index  Previous  Next 


Songs of Innocence and of Experience, by William Blake, [1789-1794], at sacred-texts.com


p. 44

The GARDEN of LOVE

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 & desires.


Next: The Little Vagabond