History & Politics

Feelings of a Republican on the Fall of Bonaparte

by Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792–1822

From Complete Poetical Works, Oxford ed. Hutchinson (1914)

History & Politics

I hated thee, fallen tyrant! I did groan
To think that a most unambitious slave,
Like thou, shouldst dance and revel on the grave
Of Liberty. Thou mightst have built thy throne
Where it had stood even now: thou didst prefer
A frail and bloody pomp which Time has swept
In fragments towards Oblivion. Massacre,
For this I prayed, would on thy sleep have crept,
Treason and Slavery, Rapine, Fear, and Lust,
And stifled thee, their minister. I know
Too late, since thou and France are in the dust,
That Virtue owns a more eternal foe
Than Force or Fraud: old Custom, legal Crime,
And bloody Faith the foulest birth of Time.

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Early poem, 1814–15. Published 1816.

MLA

Shelley, Percy Bysshe. “Feelings of a Republican on the Fall of Bonaparte.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/shelley/161/.

Chicago

Shelley, Percy Bysshe. “Feelings of a Republican on the Fall of Bonaparte.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/shelley/161/.

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