Anarchy, to thee we bow,
Be thy name made holy now!"
1). And Anarchy the skeleton
Bowed and grinned to every one
As well as if his education
Had cost ten millions to the nation.
20. For he knew the palaces
Of our kings were nightly his;
His the sceptre, crown, and globe.
And the gold-in woven robe.
21. So he sent his slaves before
To seize upon the Bank and Tower,
And was proceeding with intent
To meet his pensioned parliament,
22. When one fled past, a maniac maid,
And her name was Hope, she said,
But she looked more like Despair;
And she cried out in the air:
23. "My father Time is weak and grey
With waiting for a better day;
See how idiot-like he stands,
Fumbling with his palsied hands!
24. "He has had child after child,
And the dust of death is piled
Over every one but me-
Misery! oh Misery!”
25. Then she lay down in the street
Right before the horses' feet,
Expecting with a patient eye
Murder, Fraud, and Anarchy :-
26. When between her and her foes
A mist, a light, an image rose,
Small at first, and weak and frail
Like the vapour of the vale :
27. Till, as clouds grow on the blast
Like tower-crowned giants striding fast,
And glare with lightnings as they fly.
And speak in thunder to the sky,
28. It grew a shape arrayed in mail
Brighter than the viper's scale,
And upborne on wings whose grain
Was like the light of sunny rain.
29. On its helm seen far away
A planet like the morning's lay;
And those plumes its light rained through,
Like a shower of crimson dew.
30. With step as soft as wind it passed
O'er the heads of men: so fast
That they knew the presence there,
And looked-and all was empty air.
31. As flowers beneath May's footsteps waken, As stars from Night's loose hair are shaken, As waves arise when loud winds call, Thoughts sprung where'er that step did fall. 32. And the prostrate multitude
Looked-and, ankle-deep in blood,
Hope, that maiden most serene,
Was walking with a quiet mien;
33. And Anarchy, the ghastly birth,
Lay dead earth upon the earth;
The horse of Death, tameless as wind,
Fled, and with his hoofs did grind
To dust the murderers thronged behind.
34. A rushing light of clouds and splendour,
A sense awakening and yet tender,
Was heard and felt--and at its close
These words of joy and fear arose ;
35. As if their own indignant Earth,
Which gave the sons of England birth,
Had felt their blood upon her brow,
And, shuddering with a mother's throe,
36. Had turned every drop of blood
By which her face had been bedewed
To an accent unwithstood,
As if her heart had cried aloud.
37. "Men of England, heirs of glory,
Heroes of unwritten story,
Nurslings of one mighty mother,
Hopes of her and one another!
38. "Rise, like lions after slumber,
In unvanquishable number!
Shake your chains to earth, like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you!
39. What is Freedom? Ye can tell
That which Slavery is too well,
For its very name has grown
To an echo of your own.
40. "Tis to work, and have such pay
As just keeps life from day to day
your limbs as in a cell
For the tyrants' use to dwell:
74. "Let a vast assembly be,
And with great solemnity
Declare with ne'er-said words that ye
Are, as God has made ye, free!
75. "Be your strong and simple words
Keen to wound as sharpened swords,
And wide as targes let them be,
With their shade to cover ye.
76. "Let the tyrants pour around
With a quick and startling sound,
Like the loosening of a sea,
Troops of armed emblazonry.
77. "Let the charged artillery drive,
Till the dead air seems alive
With the clash of clanging wheels,
And the tramp of horses' heels.
78. "Let the fixed bayonet
Gleam with sharp desire to wet
Its bright point in English blood,
Looking keen as one for food.
79. "Let the horsemen's scimitars
Wheel and flash, like sphereless stars
Thirsting to eclipse their burning
In a sea of death and mourning.
80. "Stand ye calm and resolute,
Like a forest close and mute,
With folded arms, and looks which are
Weapons of an unvanquished war.
81. "And let Panic, who outspeeds
The career of armed steeds,
Pass, a disregarded shade,
Through your phalanx undismayed.
82. "Let the laws of your own land,
Good or ill, between ye stand,
Hand to hand, and foot to foot,
Arbiters of the dispute :-
83. "The old laws of England-they
Whose reverend heads with age are grey,
Children of a wiser day;
And whose solemn voice must be
Thine own echo-Liberty!
63. "Oh! turn their wealth to arms, and make
War, for thy beloved sake,
On wealth and war and fraud; whence they
Drew the power which is their
64. "Science, and poetry, and thought,
Are thy lamps; they make the lot
Of the dwellers in a cot
Such they curse their Maker not.
65. "Spirit, patience, gentleness,
All that can adorn and bless,
Art thou. Let deeds, not words, express
Thine exceeding loveliness.
66. "Let a great assembly be
Of the fearless and the free
On some spot of English ground
Where the plains stretch wide around.
67. "Let the blue sky overhead,
The green earth on which ye tread,
All that must eternal be,
Witness the solemnity.
68. "From the corners uttermost
Of the bounds of English coast;
From every hut, village, and town,
Where those who live and suffer moan
For others' misery or their own;
69. "From the workhouse and the prison
Where, pale as corpses newly risen,
Women, children, young and old,
Groan for pain, and weep for cold;
Where is waged the daily strife
With common wants and common cares
Which sow the human heart with tares;
71. "Lastly, from the palaces
Where the murmur of distress
Echoes like the distant sound
Of a wind alive around-
72. “Those prison-halls of wealth and fashion,
Where some few feel such compassion,
For those who groan and toil and wail,
As must make their brethren pale ;—
73. "Ye who suffer woes untold
Or to feel or to behold
Your lost country bought and sold
With a price of blood and gold!
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