Whenever you are trying to establish the meaning in a
particular phrase of group of words in a poem or text, it is vital to read both before
and after the given section to see what contextual clues are offered to help us
understand what is being talked about. The "weary bands" that your question refers to
actually appear in the second stanza and refer to a comparison that the speaker is
making between the sound of the reaper's song and how welcome it is and how welcome the
song of a nightingale would be for a group of travellers voyaging through the desert.
Note what the second stanza says:
No nightingale did ever
chaunt
More welcome notes to weary
bands
Of travellers in some shady
haunt,
Among Arabian
sands...
Thus the precise
identity of the "weary bands" is unimportant. Their importance lies in the comparison
that the speaker is creating, which reinforces the beauty and comfort that the song that
the reaper is singing brings him.
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