The Mask of Anarchy:
Written on the Occasion of the Massacre at Manchester
Percy Bysshe Shelley
This is a text prepared for teaching purposes, derived from the edition published
digitally in Stuart Curran and Jack
Lynch, Frankenstein: or the Modern
Prometheus: Works Included in this
edition, 1994: http://knarf.english.upenn.edu/PShelley/anarchy.html.
This edition was prepared in TEI, the language of the Text Encoding Initiative and transformed to HTML for reading on the web. View this poem in TEI XML.
1
1As I lay asleep in Italy
2There came a voice from over the Sea,
3And with great power it forth led me
4To walk in the visions of Poesy.
2
5I met Murder on the way—
6He had a mask like Castlereagh—
7Very smooth he looked, yet grim;
8Seven blood-hounds followed him:
3
9All were fat; and well they might
10Be in admirable plight,
11For one by one, and two by two,
12He tossed them human hearts to chew
4
13Which from his wide cloak he drew.
14Next came Fraud, and he had on,
15Like Eldon, an ermined gown;
16His big tears, for he wept well,
17Turned to mill-stones as they fell.
5
18And the little children, who
19Round his feet played to and fro,
20Thinking every tear a gem,
21Had their brains knocked out by them.
6
22Clothed with the Bible, as with light,
23And the shadows of the night,
24Like Sidmouth, next, Hypocrisy
25On a crocodile rode by.
7
26And many more Destructions played
27In this ghastly masquerade,
28All disguised, even to the eyes,
29Like Bishops, lawyers, peers, or spies.
8
30Last came Anarchy: he rode
31On a white horse, splashed with blood;
32He was pale even to the lips,
33Like Death in the Apocalypse.
9
34And he wore a kingly crown;
35And in his grasp a sceptre shone;
36On his brow this mark I saw—
37
I AM GOD, AND KING, AND LAW!
10
38With a pace stately and fast,
39Over English land he passed,
40Trampling to a mire of blood
41The adoring multitude.
11
42And a mighty troop around,
43With their trampling shook the ground,
44Waving each a bloody sword,
45For the service of their Lord.
12
46And with glorious triumph, they
47Rode through England proud and gay,
48Drunk as with intoxication
49Of the wine of desolation.
13
50O’er fields and towns, from sea to sea,
51Passed the Pageant swift and free,
52Tearing up, and trampling down;
53Till they came to London town.
14
54And each dweller, panic-stricken,
55Felt his heart with terror sicken
56Hearing the tempestuous cry
57Of the triumph of Anarchy.
15
58For with pomp to meet him came,
59Clothed in arms like blood and flame,
60The hired murderers, who did sing
61“Thou art God, and Law, and King.
16
62We have waited, weak and lone
63For thy coming, Mighty One!
64Our purses are empty, our swords are cold,
65Give us glory, and blood, and gold.”
17
66Lawyers and priests, a motley crowd,
67To the earth their pale brows bowed;
68Like a bad prayer not over loud,
69Whispering — Thou art Law and God. —
18
70Then all cried with one accord,
71“Thou art King, and God, and Lord;
72Anarchy, to thee we bow,
73Be thy name made holy now!”
19
74And Anarchy, the Skeleton,
75Bowed and grinned to every one,
76As well as if his education
77Had cost ten millions to the nation.
20
78For he knew the Palaces
79Of our Kings were rightly his;
80His the sceptre, crown, and globe,
81And the gold-inwoven robe.
21
82So he sent his slaves before
83To seize upon the Bank and Tower,
84And was proceeding with intent
85To meet his pensioned Parliament
22
86When one fled past, a maniac maid,
87And her name was Hope, she said:
88But she looked more like Despair,
89And she cried out in the air:
23
90“My father Time is weak and gray
91With waiting for a better day;
92See how idiot-like he stands,
93Fumbling with his palsied hands!
24
94“He has had child after child,
95And the dust of death is piled
96Over every one but me—
97Misery, oh, Misery!”
25
98Then she lay down in the street,
99Right before the horses’ feet,
100Expecting, with a patient eye,
101Murder, Fraud, and Anarchy.
26
102When between her and her foes
103A mist, a light, an image rose,
104Small at first, and weak, and frail
105Like the vapour of a vale:
27
106Till as clouds grow on the blast,
107Like tower-crowned giants striding fast,
108And glare with lightnings as they fly,
109And speak in thunder to the sky,
28
110It grew — a Shape arrayed in mail
111Brighter than the viper’s scale,
112And upborne on wings whose grain
113Was as the light of sunny rain.
29
114On its helm, seen far away,
115A planet, like the Morning’s, lay;
116And those plumes its light rained through
117Like a shower of crimson dew.
30
118With step as soft as wind it passed
119O’er the heads of men — so fast
120That they knew the presence there,
121And looked, — but all was empty air.
31
122As flowers beneath May’s footstep waken,
123As stars from Night’s loose hair are shaken,
124As waves arise when loud winds call,
125Thoughts sprung where’er that step did fall.
32
126And the prostrate multitude
127Looked — and ankle-deep in blood,
128Hope, that maiden most serene,
129Was walking with a quiet mien:
33
130And Anarchy, the ghastly birth,
131Lay dead earth upon the earth;
132The Horse of Death tameless as wind
133Fled, and with his hoofs did grind
134To dust the murderers thronged behind.
34
135A rushing light of clouds and splendour,
136A sense awakening and yet tender
137Was heard and felt — and at its close
138These words of joy and fear arose
35
139As if their own indignant Earth
140Which gave the sons of England birth
141Had felt their blood upon her brow,
142And shuddering with a mother’s throe
36
143Had turnè;d every drop of blood
144By which her face had been bedewed
145To an accent unwithstood,—
146As if her heart had cried aloud:
37
147“Men of England, heirs of Glory,
148Heroes of unwritten story,
149Nurslings of one mighty Mother,
150Hopes of her, and one another;
38
151“Rise like Lions after slumber
152In unvanquishable number,
153Shake your chains to earth like dew
154Which in sleep had fallen on you —
155Ye are many — they are few.
39
156“What is Freedom? — ye can tell
157That which slavery is, too well —
158For its very name has grown
159To an echo of your own.
40
160“’Tis to work and have such pay
161As just keeps life from day to day
162In your limbs, as in a cell
163For the tyrants’ use to dwell,
41
164“So that ye for them are made
165Loom, and plough, and sword, and spade,
166With or without your own will bent
167To their defence and nourishment.
42
168“’Tis to see your children weak
169With their mothers pine and peak,
170When the winter winds are bleak,—
171They are dying whilst I speak.
43
172“’Tis to hunger for such diet
173As the rich man in his riot
174Casts to the fat dogs that lie
175Surfeiting beneath his eye;
44
176“’Tis to let the Ghost of Gold
177Take from Toil a thousandfold
178More than e’er its substance could
179In the tyrannies of old.
45
180“Paper coin — that forgery
181Of the title-deeds, which ye
182Hold to something of the worth
183Of the inheritance of Earth.
46
184“’Tis to be a slave in soul
185And to hold no strong control
186Over your own wills, but be
187All that others make of ye.
47
188“And at length when ye complain
189With a murmur weak and vain
190’Tis to see the Tyrant’s crew
191Ride over your wives and you—
192Blood is on the grass like dew.
48
193“Then it is to feel revenge
194Fiercely thirsting to exchange
195Blood for blood — and wrong for wrong —
196Do not thus when ye are strong.
49
197“Birds find rest, in narrow nest
198When weary of their wingè;d quest;
199Beasts find fare, in woody lair
200When storm and snow are in the air,1The following stanza is found in the Wise MS and in Mary Shelley's edition
of 1839, but is wanting in the Hunt MS and
in the first edition of 1832:
“Horses, oxen, have a home,
When from daily toil they come;
Household dogs, when the wind roars,
Find a home within warm doors.”
50
201“Asses, swine, have litter spread
202And with fitting food are fed;
203All things have a home but one—
204Thou, Oh, Englishman, hast none!
51
205“This is Slavery — savage men,
206Or wild beasts within a den
207Would endure not as ye do—
208But such ills they never knew.
52
209“What art thou Freedom? O! could slaves
210Answer from their living graves
211This demand — tyrants would flee
212Like a dream’s dim imagery:
53
213“Thou art not, as impostors say,
214A shadow soon to pass away,
215A superstition, and a name
216Echoing from the cave of Fame.
54
217“For the labourer thou art bread,
218And a comely table spread
219From his daily labour come
220In a neat and happy home.
55
221“Thou art clothes, and fire, and food
222For the trampled multitude—
223No — in countries that are free
224Such starvation cannot be
225As in England now we see.
56
226“To the rich thou art a check,
227When his foot is on the neck
228Of his victim, thou dost make
229That he treads upon a snake.
57
230“Thou art Justice — ne’er for gold
231May thy righteous laws be sold
232As laws are in England — thou
233Shield’st alike the high and low.
58
234“Thou art Wisdom — Freemen never
235Dream that God will damn for ever
236All who think those things untrue
237Of which Priests make such ado.
59
238“Thou art Peace — never by thee
239Would blood and treasure wasted be
240As tyrants wasted them, when all
241Leagued to quench thy flame in Gaul.
60
242“What if English toil and blood
243Was poured forth, even as a flood?
244It availed, Oh, Liberty,
245To dim, but not extinguish thee.
61
246“Thou art Love — the rich have kissed
247Thy feet, and like him following Christ,
248Give their substance to the free
249And through the rough world follow thee,
62
250“Or turn their wealth to arms, and make
251War for thy belovè;d sake
252On wealth, and war, and fraud—whence they
253 Drew the power which is their prey.
63
254“Science, Poetry, and Thought
255Are thy lamps; they make the lot
256Of the dwellers in a cot
257So serene, they curse it not.
64
258“Spirit, Patience, Gentleness,
259All that can adorn and bless
260Art thou — let deeds, not words, express
261Thine exceeding loveliness.
65
262“Let a great Assembly be
263Of the fearless and the free
264On some spot of English ground
265Where the plains stretch wide around.
66
266“Let the blue sky overhead,
267The green earth on which ye tread,
268All that must eternal be
269Witness the solemnity.
67
270“From the corners uttermost
271Of the bonds of English coast;
272From every hut, village, and town
273Where those who live and suffer moan
274For others’ misery or their own.2The following stanza is found (cancelled) at this
place in the Wise MS.:
“From the cities where from caves,
Like the dead from putrid graves,
Troops of starvelings gliding come,
Living Tenants of a tomb.”
68
275“From the workhouse and the prison
276Where pale as corpses newly risen,
277Women, children, young and old
278Groan for pain, and weep for cold—
69
279“From the haunts of daily life
280Where is waged the daily strife
281With common wants and common cares
282Which sows the human heart with tares—
70
283“Lastly from the palaces
284Where the murmur of distress
285Echoes, like the distant sound
286Of a wind alive around
71
287“Those prison halls of wealth and fashion,
288Where some few feel such compassion
289For those who groan, and toil, and wail
290As must make their brethren pale—
72
291“Ye who suffer woes untold,
292Or to feel, or to behold
293Your lost country bought and sold
294With a price of blood and gold—
73
295“Let a vast assembly be,
296And with great solemnity
297Declare with measured words that ye
298Are, as God has made ye, free—
74
299“Be your strong and simple words
300Keen to wound as sharpened swords,
301And wide as targes let them be,
302With their shade to cover ye.
75
303“Let the tyrants pour around
304With a quick and startling sound,
305Like the loosening of a sea,
306Troops of armed emblazonry.
76
307“Let the charged artillery drive
308Till the dead air seems alive
309With the clash of clanging wheels,
310And the tramp of horses’ heels.
77
311“Let the fixè;d bayonet
312Gleam with sharp desire to wet
313Its bright point in English blood
314Looking keen as one for food.
78
315“Let the horsemen’s scimitars
316Wheel and flash, like sphereless stars
317Thirsting to eclipse their burning
318In a sea of death and mourning.
79
319“Stand ye calm and resolute,
320Like a forest close and mute,
321With folded arms and looks which are
322Weapons of unvanquished war,
80
323“And let Panic, who outspeeds
324The career of armè;d steeds
325Pass, a disregarded shade
326Through your phalanx undismayed.
81
327“Let the laws of your own land,
328Good or ill, between ye stand
329Hand to hand, and foot to foot,
330Arbiters of the dispute,
82
331“The old laws of England — they
332Whose reverend heads with age are gray,
333Children of a wiser day;
334And whose solemn voice must be
335Thine own echo — Liberty!
83
336“On those who first should violate
337Such sacred heralds in their state
338Rest the blood that must ensue,
339And it will not rest on you.
84
340“And if then the tyrants dare
341Let them ride among you there,
342Slash, and stab, and maim, and hew,—
343What they like, that let them do.
85
344“With folded arms and steady eyes,
345And little fear, and less surprise,
346Look upon them as they slay
347Till their rage has died away.
86
348“Then they will return with shame
349To the place from which they came,
350And the blood thus shed will speak
351In hot blushes on their cheek.
87
352 “Every woman in the land
353Will point at them as they stand—
354They will hardly dare to greet
355Their acquaintance in the street.
88
356“And the bold, true warriors
357Who have hugged Danger in wars
358Will turn to those who would be free,
359Ashamed of such base company.
89
360“And that slaughter to the Nation
361Shall steam up like inspiration,
362Eloquent, oracular;
363A volcano heard afar.
90
364“And these words shall then become
365Like Oppression’s thundered doom
366Ringing through each heart and brain,
367Heard again — again — again—
91
368“Rise like Lions after slumber
369In unvanquishable number—
370Shake your chains to earth like dew
371Which in sleep had fallen on you—
372Ye are many — they are few.”