Um, with apologies to John Clare and the next Cultural Essay below, we may be getting a little soft at Phoenix, but that magnificent, beautiful wedding in the Abbey might recall Yeat’s line “in custom and in ceremony are innocence and beauty born“. Of course another poet, Blake, also did his bit with that ever great English hymn about mental fight, and arrows of desire, Jerusalem, but what was sweetest was William’s evident shyness, and Kate’s complete naturalness. Now, since we rudely weren’t invited, except that the cameras brilliantly asked us all, we can get on and have a party…
Perhaps Phoenix Ark is getting a little bit soft but it’s heart is in the right place. One fact that might be of interest was that Blake, despite penning the most English of hymns, the quintessential anthem and tribute to this ‘green and pleasant’ land was a hugely controversial figure for the Church of England. This great visionary, romantic, poet and artist rejected Victorian morality, religious orthodoxy, advocated free love and criticised traditional marriage..!