Sow seed - but let no tyrant reap;.
Find wealth, - let no impostor heap;.
Weave robes, - let not the idle wear;.
Forge arms, - in your defense to bear. (21-24).
This is the second time, in this poem alone, that Shelley refers to the aristocrats and rulers of England as tyrants. This is evidence of his strong desire for political reform. He sincerely felt that the only way to gain freedom was by overthrowing "entrenched order" (Matthews 199).
Another of Shelley's poems focused on the reform of civilization, especially government, is "England in 1819". In this sonnet, Shelley uses numerous adjectives to defile England's ruling class. He refers to the king as "Old, mad, blind, despised, and dying" (1) and to the Princes as "the drags of their dull race" (2). The people, though not villainous, are described in a rather negative manner, as well. They are said to be "starved and stabbed in the untilled field" (7). Shelley goes on to deliver his presentation of the effects of the government in lines eight through nine: .
An army, which liberticide and prey.
Makes as a two-edged sword to all who wield, -.
Golden and sanguine laws which tempt and slay;.
This poem is very dramatic and reveals Shelley's convictions very passionately. Mary Shelley said that her husband "loved the People.[but] believed a clash between the two classes of society was inevitable." In her notes concerning Percy's works of 1819, she commented on the "earnestness" and "heartfelt compassion" of his desire to express his view that "oppression is detestable as being the parent of starvation, nakedness and ignorance" (Editors 626).
Another poem, that falls under Mrs. Shelley's previous commentary in fact, is "Prometheus Unbound" (Editors 374). This piece of literature is Shelley's version of the "great European humanistic myth" of the Titan who gave humans fire and taught them about the arts and sciences. Shelley, however, incorporated the "knowledge gained in the struggle for human emancipation since the fifth century B.
