William Bond is a poem of thirteen stanzas, each stanza made up of four lines, in which we follow William Bond, and his struggle between acting out of religious duty, following religious doctrine, or acting out of natural love for humanity. This love is not the love of romance, but the love that exists for and between us all, or, at least, the love the narrator of the poem hopes can exist between.
We follow the character to church on a May morning, where he is accompanied by fairies; symbols of love, imagination, hope - humanity. However, we are told, the fairies are driven away by "Angels of Providence", and that he returns home in misery. Religious dogma does not empower or embolden, rather it quashes and oppresses.
He went not out to the Field nor Fold,
He went not out to the Village nor Town,
But he came home in a black black cloud,
And he took to his Bed, & there lay down.
This rhyming poem flows beautifully, and is a pleasure to read. And, I pass along advice that I once received - read your poetry aloud, taking your time with each word and how the syllables beat. This poem reads like a song, like lyrics and, as I say, flows well. Flows so well in fact that I felt a need to go back and read it again, more slowly, taking more time to take in the content of the poem. But, that is how poetry ought to be read really; with time and patience and care.
If you would like to read more of Blake's poetry, you can purchase a Penguin Classics copy of his selected poems here from bookshop.org, who support independent bookshops.
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