Amelia Coley, Alex Leitner, & Jordyn Haney William Blake married in 1728 to an illiterate woman, Catherine Boucher, and taught her to read and write. William Blake Alex spit her gum on Jordyn when we chose this background. “The Garden of Love” By Amelia Coley, Alex Leitner, & Jordyn Haney

William Blake was born in London, England on November 28th, 1757. William Blake was home schooled until the age of ten, he said wanted to be a painter, when his parents sent him to drawing school. The first permanent photograph was made in 1826 or by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce using a sliding wooden box camera made by Charles and Vincent Chevalier in Paris. Blake said he had “visions” from a young age, at four he claimed to see God “press his head to the window.” Blake was supposed to have six siblings, but two died in infancy.

Love is personified by saying that it is sleeping. Stanza One Love is personified by saying that it is sleeping. I laid me down upon a bank, Where Love lay sleeping; I heard among the rushes dank Weeping, weeping.

Stanza Two Alliteration is used in line 6. The thistles and thorns in lines 6 and 7 are personified. Then I went to the heath and the wild, To the thistles and thorns of the waste; And they told me how they were beguiled, Driven out, and compelled to the chaste.

Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC is the location of America’s largest gardens! Stanza Three 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.

Stanza Four 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. The largest church in America, as of 2007, is Lakewood Church in Houston, TX.

Stanza Five Internal rhyme is used in lines 19 and 20. And I saw it was filled with graves, And tombstones where flowers should be; And priests in black gowns were walking their rounds, And binding with briars my joys and desires. Alliteration is used in line 19. Many Catholic priests wear black because in the 1800’s, laws were passed based on what the priests could and could not wear during mass.

Explication In the poem The Garden of Love by William Blake, the use of imagery and symbolism is widely used. The core of the poem lies in its second line, which talks about the change that he sees in his surroundings, not in the garden itself. In this poem, a garden and a chapel are described. The chapel is where William used to play as a young child. Over the door was written “Thou Shalt Not,” which is saying that he cannot enter. He turns back to the garden, only to find out that it is not filled with bugs and beautiful flowers, but with graves and briars. I think this poem is describing the change from childhood to adulthood. This is because as a child, these places were fun and filled with life, but now, as an adult, can no longer be used as a place to go for comfort.

Sources http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/116 http://ask.metafilter.com/87612/Why-do-Catholic-priests-wear-black http://quotations.about.com/cs/poemlyrics/a/Garden_Of_Love.htm http://www.biltmore.com/ http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/permanent/wfp/heliography.html http://www.outreachmagazine.com/docs/top100_2007_largest.pdf