William Blake - The Garden of Love

In William Blake’s poem, The Garden of Love, the mood of the poem for me changed drastically after the first stanza. Within first stanza, I interpreted
The poem was about a young girl who came back to a familiar place, all grown up now, and instead of being young at heart, she has blossomed and grown into a more mature love-struck soul. “I went into 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”. However as I read into the poem more, my interpretations turned out to be almost the complete opposite. This Garden of something so full of pleasure as love is without pleasure or any joy of that matter, leaving behind only graves and sites of sadness. Then I began to interpret the title more clearly; love is not joyful and full of pleasure as it may seem to be for many people. Love can be one of the hardest things in your life to be able to control and come to terms with. I felt that most poignant line was, “And the gates of this Chapel were shut, And “Thou Shalt Not” writ over the door”. I felt the speaker was saying that her place where her heart was or where her love was is no longer open. The three words, “ Thou Shalt Not” do not offer an inviting image. I felt here was where the speaker was very clear and poignant when conveying an emotion for this lifeless chapel in the Garden of Love. The wisdom, to me in this poem, is an unsaid wisdom. Stating that not everything is what it seems, and not every love story has a happy ending. The speaker is trying to convey what seems to be a pleasant title, to actual heart aching emotions.