The Garden As A Poetic Expression

I have been reading an anthology of "Garden Poems" selected and edited by John Hollander. In the forward he writes: "Gardens in themselves are essentially poetic, works of art constructed in the language of nature." Poems in the past were thought of as flowers and collections of poems were called anthologies, another name for flower-collections. Poetry, of course, describes both real and imagined gardens.

The Biblical And Modern Garden of Eden

According to Hollander, the concept of "paradise, a Greek word, derived from the Persian name for an enclosed pleasure-garden, comes from the biblical story of Eden, which is an enclosed and perfect world."Â The perfect Garden of Eden was not formed by human hands, but modern gardening, according to Hollander, "lies somewhere between the labor of farming for subsistence and the exercising of a craft, whether professional or amateur."

The Garden As A Woman

Poetry deals both with actual gardening and the mythological or imagined gardening. From the earliest times an enclosed garden has recurred as a metaphor for the feminine body. Consider Poet Thomas Campion's lines:

There is a garden in her face

Where Roses and white Lillies grow

A heavenly paradise is that place

Wherein all pleasant fruits flow.