ENGLAND IN 1819
By
Percy B. Shelley
1819
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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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