Uploaded April 2015 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Here's a virtual movie of the great Percy Bysshe Shelley reading his bitter diatribe of a Poem "England in 1819"
England in 1819 is a political sonnet by the English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, and reflects his liberal ideals.[1] Composed in 1819, it was not published until 1839 in the four-volume The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (London: Edward Moxon) edited by Mary Shelley.
The sonnet describes a very forlorn reality. The poem passionately attacks England's, as the poet sees it, decadent, oppressive ruling class. King George III referred to by "old, mad, blind, despised, and dying". The "leech-like" nobility ("princes") metaphorically suck the blood from the people, who are, in the sonnet, oppressed, hungry, and hopeless, their fields untilled. Meanwhile, the army is corrupt and dangerous to liberty, the laws are harsh and useless, religion has lost its morality, and Parliament (the "Senate") is a relic. In addition, the civil rights of the Catholic minority are non-existent "Time's worst statute unrepealed". In a startling burst of optimism, the last two lines express the hope that a "glorious Phantom" may spring forth from this decay and "illumine our tempestuous day".
This poem was written as a response to the brutal Peterloo Massacre in August 1819.
Kind Regards
Jim Clark
All rights are reserved on this video recording copyright Jim Clark 2015
Here's a virtual movie of the great Percy Bysshe Shelley reading his bitter diatribe of a Poem "England in 1819"
England in 1819 is a political sonnet by the English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, and reflects his liberal ideals.[1] Composed in 1819, it was not published until 1839 in the four-volume The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (London: Edward Moxon) edited by Mary Shelley.
The sonnet describes a very forlorn reality. The poem passionately attacks England's, as the poet sees it, decadent, oppressive ruling class. King George III referred to by "old, mad, blind, despised, and dying". The "leech-like" nobility ("princes") metaphorically suck the blood from the people, who are, in the sonnet, oppressed, hungry, and hopeless, their fields untilled. Meanwhile, the army is corrupt and dangerous to liberty, the laws are harsh and useless, religion has lost its morality, and Parliament (the "Senate") is a relic. In addition, the civil rights of the Catholic minority are non-existent "Time's worst statute unrepealed". In a startling burst of optimism, the last two lines express the hope that a "glorious Phantom" may spring forth from this decay and "illumine our tempestuous day".
This poem was written as a response to the brutal Peterloo Massacre in August 1819.
Kind Regards
Jim Clark
All rights are reserved on this video recording copyright Jim Clark 2015
