Sonnet: England in 1819 by Percy Bysshe Shelley
The speaker condemns a dying king, scorned princes and indifferent rulers while describing a people starved and stabbed, an army that destroys liberty, destructive laws, hollow religion and an unreformed Senate. These institutions become metaphorical graves from which a glorious apparition may emerge to illuminate the troubled present.
By Percy Bysshe Shelley · First published 1819 · Genre: Sonnet, Political Poetry, Protest Literature · 179 words
First lines
An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying king,- / Princes, the dregs of their dull race, who flow / Through public scorn,-mud from a muddy spring,- / Rulers who neither see, nor feel, nor know, / But leech-like to their fainting country cling, / Till they drop, blind in blood, without a blow,- / A people starved and stabbed in the untilled field,- / An army, which liberticide and prey / Makes as a two-edged sword to all who wield,- / Golden and sanguine laws which tempt and slay; / Religion Christless, Godless-a book sealed; / A Senate,-Time's worst statute, unrepealed,- / Are graves from which a glorious Phantom may / Burst, to illumine our tempestuous day.
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Sonnet: England in 1819 is listed on Textopian as a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, dated 1819 CE.
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- Work type: Poem
- Author: Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Date: 1819 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Sonnet, Political Poetry, Protest Literature
- Length: 179 words
- Structure: 1 section, 1 paragraphs
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- Work identity for Sonnet: England in 1819 by Percy Bysshe Shelley
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- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
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Genres
- Sonnet — Fourteen rhyming lines accumulate accusations before the final two lines introduce the possibility of illumination.
- Political Poetry — The speaker attacks the monarchy, army, laws and Senate for their relationship to national suffering and the destruction of liberty.
- Protest Literature — The denunciation opposes rulers who cling to a suffering country and institutions that starve, wound or exploit its people.
Tags
monarchy · political oppression · hunger · military violence · religious criticism · political renewal