{"id":2973,"date":"2011-02-01T03:53:11","date_gmt":"2011-02-01T03:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.smmcroberts.net\/blog\/?p=2973"},"modified":"2017-09-21T18:57:07","modified_gmt":"2017-09-21T18:57:07","slug":"the-garden-of-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smmcroberts.net\/blog\/the-garden-of-love\/","title":{"rendered":"The Garden of Love"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>From<\/strong>: Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience<\/em> (1794) by William Blake<\/p>\n

I went to the Garden of Love,
\nAnd saw what I never had seen:
\nA Kingdom Hall built in the midst,
\nWhere I used to play on the green.<\/p>\n

And the gates of this building were shut
\nAnd ‘Thou shalt not,’ writ over the door;
\nSo I turned to the Garden of Love
\nThat so many sweet flowers bore.<\/p>\n

And I saw it was filled with graves,
\nAnd tombstones where flowers should be;
\nElders in black gowns were walking their rounds,
\nAnd binding with briars my joys and desires.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

A little girl I spied me there
\nwho sang sad songs of woe and death
\nand shivered in the fetid gloom
\nand struggled for her every breath.<\/p>\n

“Come away and play with me!
\nAway from bogus rules and lies
\nwe’ll journey through this flowering world
\nwhere light shines through unfettered skies!”<\/p>\n

Then grieved to see I’d called in vain.
\nShe turned away in sad lament:
\n“If false or true, I cannot go with you.
\nI don’t know how to play; just ‘listen and obey<\/em>.'”<\/p>\n

(Slightly altered & with additional verses by Steve McRoberts<\/em>)
\n\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From: Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience (1794) by William Blake I went to the Garden of Love, And saw what I never had seen: A Kingdom Hall built in the midst, Where I used to play on the green. And the gates of this building were shut And ‘Thou shalt not,’ writ over … Continue reading “The Garden of Love”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3vZ6t-LX","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":159,"url":"https:\/\/www.smmcroberts.net\/blog\/not-i-robot\/","url_meta":{"origin":2973,"position":0},"title":"[Not] I, Robot","author":"smmcroberts","date":"August 3, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by \"The Black Sheep\" In one of Charlie Chaplin's cinematic masterpieces, Modern Times, there is a scene in which a salesman mutely enters the room, sets up a gramophone, and plays a pre-recorded speech about his product (a hilarious automated feeding machine for factory workers). Chaplin's film depicted the dehumanizing\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/www.smmcroberts.net\/blog\/not-i-robot\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.smmcroberts.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/ThoughtControlSong_KingdomServiceSongbook1944_p10.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":454,"url":"https:\/\/www.smmcroberts.net\/blog\/you-cant-live-forever-in-paradise-on-earth\/","url_meta":{"origin":2973,"position":1},"title":"You Can’t Live Forever in Paradise on Earth","author":"smmcroberts","date":"August 24, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"(I'm sorry, but you just can't.) One of the more useful things I do, when I'm not busy scoffing, is to transcribe school textbooks into braille for visually impaired students. Currently I'm working on a fourth-grade science textbook. 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