467. England in 1819 by Percy Bysshe Shelley
PB Shelley read by Classic Poetry Aloud:\nhttp://www.classicpoetryaloud.com/\n\nGiving voice to the poetry of the past.\n\n---------------------------------------\n\nEngland in 1819\nby Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 \u2013 1822)\n\nAn old, mad, blind, despised, and dying king,\u2013\nPrinces, the dregs of their dull race, who flow\nThrough public scorn, mud from a muddy spring,\u2013\nRulers who neither see, nor feel, nor know,\nBut leech-like to their fainting country cling,\nTill they drop, blind in blood, without a blow,\u2013\nA people starved and stabbed in the untilled field,\u2013\nAn army which liberticide and prey\nMakes as a two-edged sword to all who wield,\u2013\nGolden and sanguine laws which tempt and slay;\nReligion Christless, Godless, a book sealed,\u2013\nA Senate\u2013Time's worst statute unrepealed,\u2013\nAre graves from which a glorious Phantom may\nBurst to illumine our tempestuous day.\n\n\nFirst aired: 24 April 2009\n\nFor hundreds more poetry readings, visit the Classic Poetry Aloud index.\n\nReading \xa9 Classic Poetry Aloud 2009