<Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article does not cite any sources . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (August 2007) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> "The Garden of Love" is a poem by the Romantic poet William Blake . It was published as part of his collection, Songs of Experience . </P> <P> One reading on "The Garden of Love" is that it was written to express Blake's beliefs on the naturalness of sexuality and how organised religion, particularly the Christian church of Blake's time, encouraged repression of natural desires . </P> <P> If this is what Blake intended, it would have been a brave statement to make in his time due to the implied sexual reference, but much of the poetry of Blake and his contemporaries contained critique of the Church of England's hierarchical structure and influence on government . Blake's indignation at his subject matter is evident from the second line as he is talking about seeing "what I had never seen". He says he has "never" seen it although he must have grown up all his life being very aware of the Church's attitude towards sexuality . It can then perhaps be inferred that he is speaking from the point of view of innocence who has just entered the world of experience and is in a state of shock and sadness at how his previous freedoms have been blocked and squashed by the Church . "A chapel was built in the midst / Where I used to play on the green" The "green" has special significance also as it mirrors the contrary poem in innocence "The Echoing Green" hence the reading of the "green" to represent previous, innocent freedom, as well as the more obvious "play". </P>

Theme of the poem the garden of love
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