467. England in 1819 by Percy Bysshe Shelley
b"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"