#title England in 1819 #author Percy Bysshe Shelley #SORTtopics England, poetry, Peterloo Massacre, monarchy #date 1839 #source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England_in_1819 #lang en An old, mad, blind, despis'd, 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 starv'd and stabb'd in the untill'd 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.