ABSTRACT
May Day is the ideal consummation of Robert Bloomfield’s career as a poet because it reasserts many of the grand themes of his oeuvre: that humanity prospers within mutually supportive communities; that labour is the stimulus for a particular kind of poetry; and that genius exists in all social situations. Mutuality is an important feature of the community as is clear from the description of the preparations for the feast. The whole of Sir Ambrose’s large household is engaged in these preparations, and his workers appear to be long-term employees hired on a living-in basis. Bloomfield reshapes paternalism to suit his own vision of an ideal community. Bloomfield reiterates the message of The Farmer’s Boy; that social interaction within an inclusive community causes people ‘to think who never thought before’, and produces both poets and poetry. Like the majority of the labouring poor, Bloomfield believed that ownership of a landed estate was always accompanied by certain responsibilities.
