"The Garden of Love" and "A Poison Tree" by William Blake

While both poems express criticism of suppression, each of them discusses a different area. The poem “The Garden of Love” deals mainly with repression of “joys and desires” by the church. The speaker in this poem returns to the Garden of Love and instead of freedom and natural view of love he finds “a chapel …built in the midst” and “priests in black gowns” who bound his “ joys and desires…with briars” (The Garden of Love). It is worth noting that the lettering “Thou Shalt not” written “over the door” of the new built  “Chapel” (The Garden of Love)  might refer to the 95 theses nailed to the door of Wittenberg church by the German religious reformer Martin Luther.  

Both poems deal with the topic about nature. In the “Garden of Love” the “sweet flowers”, representing all the pleasant joys of love, were replaced by cold and lifeless “graves” and “tombstones” whereas in the poem “A Poison Tree” a hateful “apple” was born to poison the “foe” of the speaker. The apple was created by a growing “wrath”, “fears” and “deceitful wiles”. It was meant to be stolen and eaten by the “foe” of the speaker so he would “outstretch beneath the tree”.

From the psychological view, “The Garden of Love” covers Freudan idea of Superego’s control over the Id. In this case Church with its strict rules and limitations represents the Superego which is policing Id, the natural human desires, passions and needs. On the other hand, “A Poison Tree” describes the psychological states of anger and hatred by showing how the poisoned “apple” grew. <- (develop this more)

“The Garden of Love” and “A poison tree” are very tricky poems because they hide very deep and complicated thoughts under their evident simplicity. As they are written by the same author, their style and structure is very similar. While the themes of both poems belong under the same broad topic of criticism of the repression each of them elaborates a different section.