England in 1819 by Percy Bysshe Shelly

• Theme - Authority and power


  The poem openly criticises the king and monarchy at a time when treason was punishable by death
• Theme - Violence and oppression


  Those who should protect the people are being used to oppress them
• Theme - Rebirth and reformation

  Shelly was a socialist, and the speaker in the poem hopes that the country can be reborn from the chaos caused by the ruling class
• The Peterloo Massacre

  • Happened in 1819
  • The army was deployed to break up a peaceful protest of around 60,000 over poverty and rising food prices
  • The cavalry charged in with swords drawn
  • Between 11 and 18 people were killed, and over 400 men, women and children were injured
  • The event became representative to many of Tory callousness and tyranny
• Polemic attack


  A strong verbal attack
• "An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying King;" 


  • Everything about the monarchy is wrong
  • Conveys anger and hatred
  • Referring to King George III, who was on the throne for 60 years and generally considered to be mad
• "Princes, the dregs of their dull race,"


  • Princes are worthless - the same as the leftovers thrown away
  • Could be considered the worst of the worst
• "mud from a muddy spring"

  • Metaphor
  • All princes are born from the same corrupt pool
  • The monarchy are like a spring, but although that is usually considered a good thing (water source), this one is muddy and unpleasant
  • Reinforcing again that the ruling class are the worst of the worst
  • Cesura before (double punctuation ,-) means that the metaphor is emphasised and hang clearly, forcing the reader to think about it
• "Rulers who neither see nor feel nor know"

  • Polysyndetic triplet
  • Dehumanising
  • They have none of the essential qualities needed to experience and understand the world
  • People in power should be able to see and feel and know but those ruling England can't
  • Implication that the rulers are worthless
• "leechlike"


  • Simile
  • Dehumanising, animalistic
  • Blood sucking - the rulers are sucking the life out of England
  • Long vowel sounds are easy to draw out and emphasise, making the harsh reality of living in England impossible to ignore
• "fainting country cling"

  • Personification
  • England has lost so much blood (resources) that it's "fainting"
  • The ruling classes take and take and take with little thought for the toll that it is taking on the working class
  • Harsh "c" sounds emphasise Shelly's anger
• "blind in blood without a blow"

  • Plosives emphasise Shelly's anger at the establishment
  • "b" sounds almost sound like someone vomiting - the state of England makes him sick
  • Suggests that the monarchy just blindly passes on the throne down the bloodline with little regard for if the heir is fit to rule
  • Implies that the kings all die of old age having never seen physical labour or harm
• "A people starved and stabbed in th' untilled field"


  • Referring to Peterloo
  • The "st" sibilance can be spat out, reminding the reader of the fury threaded throughout the poem
  • Ordinary people are starving and dying but the ruling class don't care
  • "A people" suggests a sense of unity and implies that everyone in England is suffering
• "An army, whom liberticide and prey"


  • Liberticide - destruction of freedom
  • The army should be trusted to look after the people, not kill them
• "a two-edged sword"


  • People get hurt no matter what
• "Religion Christless, Godless - a book sealed;"


  • Religion can offer no comfort
  • The Church is corrupt - not even the leaders of a religion can be trusted anymore
  • Cesura around the last phrase emphasises it, forces us to think about it
• "graves from which a glorious Phantom may/Burst to illumine our tempestuous day"

  • Anger turns to hope
  • Contrast to the start
  • Burst of hope - this change must happen rapidly, not subtly
  • Shelly has some hope for national redemption
  • Tempestuous day - the day of the massacre
  • England needs light to lift it out of the darkness caused by the establishment
• Rhyme scheme


  • Mix of Shakespearean and Petrarchan
  • Idiosyncratic rhyme scheme
  • Can be linked to the idea of upheaval
  • Not a perfect sonnet - wants to be a love poem but can't with the state of the country
• The poem is only two sentences long

  • Comes across like a rant
  • Breathless
  • The speaker is desperate to convey his anger towards the establishment
• Sonnet form

  • 14 lines
  • Idiosyncratic rhyme scheme
  • Not perfect iambic pentameter
  • This should have been a love poem, but the speaker can't confess his love for a country that massacres its ordinary people
  • Suggests love for the country, hatred for the upper class
• Link to:

  • Lines Written in Early Spring
  • A century later
  • Like an heiress