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Transcript

Biography

(1819)

(The last thirteen stanzas)

What does it mean?

The Mask of Anarchy

The mask of anarchy is believed to be a call of freedom, and is possibly the first modern statement about the principle of nonviolent resistance.

The true meaning of this work was never truly identified to its discovery being 1832, 10 years after his death.

Born August 4, 1792, at Field Place, Sussex, England. He began writing poetry while at Eton College, but his first publication was a Gothic novel, Zastrozzi (1810). At age nineteen, Shelley eloped with Harriet Westbrook, who was sixteen at the time. Once married, Shelley moved to the Lake District of England to study and write. Two years later he published his first long serious work, known as 'Queen Mab' A philosophical poem.The poem emerged from Shelley's friendship with the British philosopher William Godwin, and it expressed Godwin's freethinking Socialist philosophy. Shelley also became enamored of Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft's daughter, Mary, and in 1814 they eloped to Europe. After six weeks, out of money, they returned to England. In November 1814 Harriet Shelley bore a son, and in February 1815 Mary Godwin gave birth prematurely to a child who died two weeks later. The following January, Mary bore another son, named William after her father. In May the couple went to Lake Geneva, where Shelley spent a great deal of time with George Gordon, Lord Byron, sailing on Lake Geneva and discussing poetry and other topics, including ghosts and spirits, into the night. During one of these ghostly "seances," Byron proposed that each person present should write a ghost story. Mary's contribution to the contest became the novel Frankenstein. That same year, Shelley produced the verse allegory Alastor, or The Spirit of Solitude. In December 1816 Harriet Shelley apparently committed suicide. Three weeks after her body was recovered from a lake in a London park, Shelley and Mary Godwin officially were married. Shelley lost custody of his two children by Harriet because of his adherence to the notion of free love. On July 8, 1822, shortly before his thirtieth birthday, Shelley was drowned in a storm while attempting to sail from Leghorn to La Spezia, Italy, in his schooner, the Don Juan.

"Stand ye calm and resolute, Like a forest close and mute, With folded arms and looks which are Weapons of unvanquished war,

"And let Panic, who outspeeds The career of armèd steeds Pass, a disregarded shade Through your phalanx undismayed.

"Let the laws of your own land, Good or ill, between ye stand Hand to hand, and foot to foot, Arbiters of the dispute,

"The old laws of England—they Whose reverend heads with age are gray, Children of a wiser day; And whose solemn voice must be Thine own echo—Liberty!

"On those who first should violate Such sacred heralds in their state Rest the blood that must ensue, And it will not rest on you.

"And if then the tyrants dare Let them ride among you there, Slash, and stab, and maim, and hew,— What they like, that let them do.

"With folded arms and steady eyes, And little fear, and less surprise, Look upon them as they slay Till their rage has died away.

"Then they will return with shame To the place from which they came, And the blood thus shed will speak In hot blushes on their cheek.

"Every woman in the land Will point at them as they stand— They will hardly dare to greet Their acquaintance on the street.

"And the bold, true warriors Who have hugged Danger in wars Will turn to those who would be free, Ashamed of such base company.

"And that slaughter to the Nation Shall steam up like inspiration, Eloquent, oracular; A volcano heard afar.

"And these words shall then become Like Oppression's thundered doom Ringing through each heart and brain, Heard again—again—again—

"Rise like Lions after slumber In unvanquishable number— Shake your chains to earth like dew WHich in sleep had fallen on you— Ye are many—they are few.

Literary Analysis

In order to explore and express the horror of the event in (The full version)“The Mask of Anarchy” Shelley makes use of frighteningly grotesque imagery and language

Bibliography

Shelley, Percy Bysshe. "The Mask of Anarchy [Excerpt]." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 08 Apr. 2014.

"Percy Bysshe Shelley." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 07 Apr. 2014.

Percy Bysshe Shelley The Mask of Anarchy

By: Ross W.

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