England 1819

Text and Wordlist

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-edg 'd sword to all who wield ,

Golden and sanguine laws which tempt and slay ,

Religion Christless , Godless - a book seal 'd ,

A Senate - Time 's worst statute unrepeal 'd ,

Are graves , from which a glorious Phantom may

Burst , to illumine our tempestuous day

LnT suggests

LnT  For further information on Percy Bisshe Shelley, LnT displays a brief biography together with Shelley's literary production in a  chart 

LnT  Introduction to Romanticism offers an overview of the age

LnT  A text analysis in 8 literary elements is available. The division into sections, the rhyme scheme, the structure/layout/genre, the setting, the figures of speech, a brief grammatical analysis, a brief semantic analysis, the themes are discussed following the map "How yo analyze and report on a poetic text"

LnT On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNlNC5qg9Cs, a reading of the poem. Practise and enjoy it.

LnT Prometheus Unbound ia a lyrical dram by PB Shelley you might find exciting to read.