The Garden of Love

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.

And the gates of this chapel were shut,
and "Thou shalt not" writ over the door;
So I turn'd to the Garden of Love, 
that so many, many sweet flowers bore;

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.

by William Blake (1757-1827) , "The Garden of Love", from Songs of Innocence and Experience, in Songs of Experience, no. 16, published 1794

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

by George Antheil (1900-1959) , "The Garden of Love", 1948, from Songs of Experience, no. 1.
by William Bolcom (1938-) , "The Garden of Love", 1956-81 [soloists, madrigal group, chorus, orchestra], from Songs of Experience, Volume Two, no. 6.
by Vincent Sauter Frohne (1936-) , "The garden of love", op. 30a no. 3 (1971), first performed 1976 [soprano, narrator, and chamber orchestra], from Sacred Songs of William Blake, no. 3.
by Gary Michael Higginson (1952-) , "The Garden of Love", 1977, from Seven Songs of William Blake, no. ?
by Michael Richard Miller (1932-) , "The garden of love", 1965, from Blake on Love, no. 2.
by John Mitchell (1941-) , "The Garden of Love", op. 25 no. 6 (1977), from Visions from the Flame, no. 6.
by Solomon Pimsleur (1900-1962) , "The Garden of Love", 1922, from Songs of Innocence and Experience, no. ?
by Elie Siegmeister (1909-1991) , "The Garden of Love", published 1978, from Songs of Experience, no. ?
by Øistein Sommerfeldt (1919-1994) , "The Garden of Love", op. 53 no. 2 (1979), from From William Blake's Poetry, no. 2.
by Carl Paul Vollrath (1931-) , "The Garden of Love", 1966, from Songs of Experience, no. ?
by Judith Lang Zaimont , "Elegy: The Garden of Love", 1974, from Songs of Innocence, no. ?

Added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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