Songs of Experience: The Garden of Love 1794 - 1825

"The Garden of Love" is an illuminated printing from William Blake's *Songs of Experience*, a collection of poetry that is a companion to Blake's earlier *Songs of Innocence*. This artwork illustrates the poem "The Garden of Love", which presents a critique of organized religion. In this artwork, a priest stands in a garden, reading a book, while three figures kneel before him in a posture of prayer. The scene is set in a garden, which Blake associates with love and joy, but the presence of the priest, who is reading from a book instead of engaging with the people before him, suggests that organized religion stifles these natural impulses. This is a particularly poignant example of Blake's artistic practice of incorporating visual elements and text into his work.