This line reflects the way the church has restricted love

This line reflects the way the church promotes free love

mournful, distressful

innocence, naivety

line 2

line 10

line 6

restriction

pleasure

The reader will expect the speaker to enter an area/state of being that is open, free and beautiful. It is a place of peace and tranquillity.The allusion to the Biblical Garden of Eden creates the expectation of spiritual perfection and natural beauty.

The reader will expect the speaker to enter a place that is not free to anyone. Depending on your religious standing, you are either disallowed or allowed entry into the garden

He was dismayed to see there what he had never seen earlier. He found that in the green open place, a Chapel (church) had been erected in the middle of the place were boys and girls together used to play. Organized religion thus destroyed the Garden of Love.

He was dismayed to see that the place filled with freedom to be earlier is now destroyed. Religion has infiltrated the garden and impacted the idea of free love.

The words, 'gates' and 'shut' have connotations of restriction and loss of freedom to choose. It suggests that not all people are welcome. The command, 'Thou shalt not' alludes to the Old Testament/Ten Commandments which forbade certain

behaviours and reinforces the sense of restriction. This highlights the speaker's indignant/angry/disappointed/dismayed tone.

The words indicate that the speaker feels aggrieved at what has been done to the tarnishing of the garden. He is upset with man and their strict laws of prerequisite behaviour.

“Thou Shalt Not” suggests the concept of private property, which is the source of all inequality and helplessness in society.

“Thou Shalt Not” suggests the concept of exclusivity, only certain people are allowed into the garden. Those who follow the laws of the commandments

It is an attack on the concept of restriction of free sexual love.

Religion has forced man to shone the beauty of love and follow a set of laws which place restrictions on how, what, who, where, when and why to love.

Religion has a tendency to elevate the spiritual at the suppression of the physical.

The title refers to the Garden of Eden.

A Biblical reference to the creation of man.

The garden is filled with beauty "love"

The title refers to a garden where the speaker met his love.

It is a beautiful place which reminds him of the beauty of their love.

The other garden in the Bible is in the Old Testament poem ‘Song of Songs’, an erotic poem in which garden imagery is used as a metaphor for sexual enjoyment.

The garden in 'Song of Songs' condemns the freedom of love and sexual exploration.

True

False

It is bounded by ‘gates’ that are ‘shut’

It is a place where people are not free to act (‘Thou shalt not’)

It is associated with the loss of life (‘graves’)

They confine any initiative towards freedom (‘binding… desires’) in a potentially painful way (using ‘briars’)

Its priests wear ‘black’ uniforms and patrol the grounds

ABCB

DEFE

GHIJ

ABBA

ABBA

CDCD

ABAB

CDCD

EFEF

There is Internal rather than end rhyme.

This stanza disrupts any sense of predictability.

There is no perfection in the organization of religious laws.

The rhyme scheme is perfect.

The speaker views religion as necessary to guide and direct man's behaviour.

Anger

Disappointment

Frustration

Dismay

The first stanza describes a peaceful and idyllic scene.

The first stanza describes a disturbing image of sin.

There is a contradiction between the peaceful garden scene and the chapel with its closed gates and the inscription. There is a certain tension rising with the introduction of a man made construct.

There is discord between man and religion. Religion has placed restrictions on man's sexual behaviour. Sin is to be abolished.

In the last stanza the tension is at its highest level. It seems to be harsh and energetic. The diction used are hard and extremely negative. These indicate the complete dissatisfaction of the speaker.

In the last stanza the speaker comes to terms with the reality that religion will always govern man's lives.

Instead of life flourishing ('flowers'), the garden is now associated with death as it is filled with 'graves' and 'tombstones'.

The priests in black gowns are like sinister figures on patrol. These lines reflect the speaker's criticism of

authoritarian religion's depriving man to love freely. He sees such religion as cruelly restrictive ('binding with briars my joys and desires') of individual freedom and fulfilment.

The speaker's idea of religion is that it is necessary to direct and guide one's behaviour.

It is essential in keeping an on the straight and narrow and needed to preserve the virtue of morality.

Internal rhyme: "gowns – rounds"; "briars – desires"

This conveys the overwhelming oppression exercised by he

church; speaker’s hopes are crushed.

The internal rhyme: "gowns – rounds"; "briars – desires" conveys the speaker's view that love is to be restricted and it is sinful to express sexuality openly.