5 I met Murder on the way--
6 He had a mask like Castlereagh--
7 Very smooth he looked, yet grim;
8 Seven blood-hounds followed him:
9 All were fat; and well they might
10 Be in admirable plight,
11 For one by one, and two by two,
12 He tossed them human hearts to chew
13 Which from his wide cloak he drew.
14 Next came Fraud, and he had on,
15 Like Eldon, an ermined gown;
16 His big tears, for he wept well,
17 Turned to mill-stones as they fell.
18 And the little children, who
19 Round his feet played to and fro,
20 Thinking every tear a gem,
21 Had their brains knocked out by them.
22 Clothed with the Bible, as with light,
23 And the shadows of the night,
24 Like Sidmouth, next, Hypocrisy
25 On a crocodile rode by.
26 And many more Destructions played
27 In this ghastly masquerade,
28 All disguised, even to the eyes,
29 Like Bishops, lawyers, peers, or spies.
30 Last came Anarchy: he rode
31 On a white horse, splashed with blood;
32 He was pale even to the lips,
33 Like Death in the Apocalypse.
34 And he wore a kingly crown;
35 And in his grasp a sceptre shone;
36 On his brow this mark I saw--
37 'I AM GOD, AND KING, AND LAW!'
38 With a pace stately and fast,
39 Over English land he passed,
40 Trampling to a mire of blood
41 The adoring multitude.
42 And a mighty troop around,
43 With their trampling shook the ground,
44 Waving each a bloody sword,
45 For the service of their Lord.
46 And with glorious triumph, they
47 Rode through England proud and gay,
48 Drunk as with intoxication
49 Of the wine of desolation.
50 O'er fields and towns, from sea to sea,
51 Passed the Pageant swift and free,
52 Tearing up, and trampling down;
53 Till they came to London town.
54 And each dweller, panic-stricken,
55 Felt his heart with terror sicken
56 Hearing the tempestuous cry
57 Of the triumph of Anarchy.
58 For with pomp to meet him came,
59 Clothed in arms like blood and flame,
60 The hired murderers, who did sing
61 `Thou art God, and Law, and King.
62 `We have waited, weak and lone
63 For thy coming, Mighty One!
64 Our purses are empty, our swords are cold,
65 Give us glory, and blood, and gold.'
66 Lawyers and priests, a motley crowd,
67 To the earth their pale brows bowed;
68 Like a bad prayer not over loud,
69 Whispering--`Thou art Law and God.'--
70 Then all cried with one accord,
71 `Thou art King, and God, and Lord;
72 Anarchy, to thee we bow,
73 Be thy name made holy now!'
74 And Anarchy, the Skeleton,
75 Bowed and grinned to every one,
76 As well as if his education
77 Had cost ten millions to the nation.
78 For he knew the Palaces
79 Of our Kings were rightly his;
80 His the sceptre, crown, and globe,
81 And the gold-inwoven robe.
82 So he sent his slaves before
83 To seize upon the Bank and Tower,
84 And was proceeding with intent
85 To meet his pensioned Parliament
86 When one fled past, a maniac maid,
87 And her name was Hope, she said:
88 But she looked more like Despair,
89 And she cried out in the air:
90 `My father Time is weak and gray
91 With waiting for a better day;
92 See how idiot-like he stands,
93 Fumbling with his palsied hands!
94 `He has had child after child,
95 And the dust of death is piled
96 Over every one but me--
97 Misery, oh, Misery!'
98 Then she lay down in the street,
99 Right before the horses' feet,
100 Expecting, with a patient eye,
101 Murder, Fraud, and Anarchy.
102 When between her and her foes
103 A mist, a light, an image rose,
104 Small at first, and weak, and frail
105 Like the vapour of a vale:
106 Till as clouds grow on the blast,
107 Like tower-crowned giants striding fast,
108 And glare with lightnings as they fly,
109 And speak in thunder to the sky,
110 It grew--a Shape arrayed in mail
111 Brighter than the viper's scale,
112 And upborne on wings whose grain
113 Was as the light of sunny rain.
114 On its helm, seen far away,
115 A planet, like the Morning's, lay;
116 And those plumes its light rained through
117 Like a shower of crimson dew.
118 With step as soft as wind it passed
119 O'er the heads of men--so fast
120 That they knew the presence there,
121 And looked,--but all was empty air.
122 As flowers beneath May's footstep waken,
123 As stars from Night's loose hair are shaken,
124 As waves arise when loud winds call,
125 Thoughts sprung where'er that step did fall.
126 And the prostrate multitude
127 Looked-and ankle-deep in blood,
128 Hope, that maiden most serene,
129 Was walking with a quiet mien:
130 And Anarchy, the ghastly birth,
131 Lay dead earth upon the earth;
132 The Horse of Death tameless as wind
133 Fled, and with his hoofs did grind
134 To dust the murderers thronged behind.
135 A rushing light of clouds and splendour,
136 A sense awakening and yet tender
137 Was heard and felt--and at its close
138 These words of joy and fear arose
139 As if their own indignant Earth
140 Which gave the sons of England birth
141 Had felt their blood upon her brow,
142 And shuddering with a mother's throe
143 Had turnèd every drop of blood
144 By which her face had been bedewed
145 To an accent unwithstood,--
146 As if her heart had cried aloud:
147 `Men of England, heirs of Glory,
148 Heroes of unwritten story,
149 Nurslings of one mighty Mother,
150 Hopes of her, and one another;
151 `Rise like Lions after slumber
152 In unvanquishable number,
153 Shake your chains to earth like dew
154 Which in sleep had fallen on you--
155 Ye are many--they are few.
156 `What is Freedom?--ye can tell
157 That which slavery is, too well--
158 For its very name has grown
159 To an echo of your own.
160 `'Tis to work and have such pay
161 As just keeps life from day to day
162 In your limbs, as in a cell
163 For the tyrants' use to dwell,
164 `So that ye for them are made
165 Loom, and plough, and sword, and spade,
166 With or without your own will bent
167 To their defence and nourishment.
168 `'Tis to see your children weak
169 With their mothers pine and peak,
170 When the winter winds are bleak,--
171 They are dying whilst I speak.
172 `'Tis to hunger for such diet
173 As the rich man in his riot
174 Casts to the fat dogs that lie
175 Surfeiting beneath his eye;
176 `'Tis to let the Ghost of Gold
177 Take from Toil a thousandfold
178 More than e'er its substance could
179 In the tyrannies of old.
180 `Paper coin--that forgery
181 Of the title-deeds, which ye
182 Hold to something of the worth
183 Of the inheritance of Earth.
184 `'Tis to be a slave in soul
185 And to hold no strong control
186 Over your own wills, but be
187 All that others make of ye.
188 `And at length when ye complain
189 With a murmur weak and vain
190 'Tis to see the Tyrant's crew
191 Ride over your wives and you--
192 Blood is on the grass like dew.
193 `Then it is to feel revenge
194 Fiercely thirsting to exchange
195 Blood for blood--and wrong for wrong--
196 Do not thus when ye are strong.
197 `Birds find rest, in narrow nest
198 When weary of their wingèd quest;
199 Beasts find fare, in woody lair
200 When storm and snow are in the air, ???MS Stanza???
201 `Asses, swine, have litter spread
202 And with fitting food are fed;
203 All things have a home but one--
204 Thou, Oh, Englishman, hast none!
205 `This is Slavery--savage men,
206 Or wild beasts within a den
207 Would endure not as ye do--
208 But such ills they never knew.
209 `What art thou Freedom? O! could slaves
210 Answer from their living graves
211 This demand--tyrants would flee
212 Like a dream's dim imagery:
213 `Thou art not, as impostors say,
214 A shadow soon to pass away,
215 A superstition, and a name
216 Echoing from the cave of Fame.
217 `For the labourer thou art bread,
218 And a comely table spread
219 From his daily labour come
220 In a neat and happy home.
221 `Thou art clothes, and fire, and food
222 For the trampled multitude--
223 No--in countries that are free
224 Such starvation cannot be
225 As in England now we see.
226 `To the rich thou art a check,
227 When his foot is on the neck
228 Of his victim, thou dost make
229 That he treads upon a snake.
230 `Thou art Justice--ne'er for gold
231 May thy righteous laws be sold
232 As laws are in England--thou
233 Shield'st alike the high and low.
234 `Thou art Wisdom--Freemen never
235 Dream that God will damn for ever
236 All who think those things untrue
237 Of which Priests make such ado.
238 `Thou art Peace--never by thee
239 Would blood and treasure wasted be
240 As tyrants wasted them, when all
241 Leagued to quench thy flame in Gaul.
242 `What if English toil and blood
243 Was poured forth, even as a flood?
244 It availed, Oh, Liberty,
245 To dim, but not extinguish thee.
246 `Thou art Love--the rich have kissed
247 Thy feet, and like him following Christ,
248 Give their substance to the free
249 And through the rough world follow thee,
250 `Or turn their wealth to arms, and make
251 War for thy belovèd sake
252 On wealth, and war, and fraud--whence they
253 Drew the power which is their prey.
254 `Science, Poetry, and Thought
255 Are thy lamps; they make the lot
256 Of the dwellers in a cot
257 So serene, they curse it not.
258 `Spirit, Patience, Gentleness,
259 All that can adorn and bless
260 Art thou--let deeds, not words, express
261 Thine exceeding loveliness.
262 `Let a great Assembly be
263 Of the fearless and the free
264 On some spot of English ground
265 Where the plains stretch wide around.
266 `Let the blue sky overhead,
267 The green earth on which ye tread,
268 All that must eternal be
269 Witness the solemnity.
270 `From the corners uttermost
271 Of the bounds of English coast;
272 From every hut, village, and town
273 Where those who live and suffer moan
274 For others' misery or their own. ???MS Stanza???
275 `From the workhouse and the prison
276 Where pale as corpses newly risen,
277 Women, children, young and old
278 Groan for pain, and weep for cold--
279 `From the haunts of daily life
280 Where is waged the daily strife
281 With common wants and common cares
282 Which sows the human heart with tares--
283 `Lastly from the palaces
284 Where the murmur of distress
285 Echoes, like the distant sound
286 Of a wind alive around
287 `Those prison halls of wealth and fashion,
288 Where some few feel such compassion
289 For those who groan, and toil, and wail
290 As must make their brethren pale--
291 `Ye who suffer woes untold,
292 Or to feel, or to behold
293 Your lost country bought and sold
294 With a price of blood and gold--
295 `Let a vast assembly be,
296 And with great solemnity
297 Declare with measured words that ye
298 Are, as God has made ye, free--
299 `Be your strong and simple words
300 Keen to wound as sharpened swords,
301 And wide as targes let them be,
302 With their shade to cover ye.
303 `Let the tyrants pour around
304 With a quick and startling sound,
305 Like the loosening of a sea,
306 Troops of armed emblazonry.
307 `Let the charged artillery drive
308 Till the dead air seems alive
309 With the clash of clanging wheels,
310 And the tramp of horses' heels.
311 `Let the fixèd bayonet
312 Gleam with sharp desire to wet
313 Its bright point in English blood
314 Looking keen as one for food.
315 `Let the horsemen's scimitars
316 Wheel and flash, like sphereless stars
317 Thirsting to eclipse their burning
318 In a sea of death and mourning.
319 `Stand ye calm and resolute,
320 Like a forest close and mute,
321 With folded arms and looks which are
322 Weapons of unvanquished war,
323 `And let Panic, who outspeeds
324 The career of armèd steeds
325 Pass, a disregarded shade
326 Through your phalanx undismayed.
327 `Let the laws of your own land,
328 Good or ill, between ye stand
329 Hand to hand, and foot to foot,
330 Arbiters of the dispute,
331 `The old laws of England--they
332 Whose reverend heads with age are gray,
333 Children of a wiser day;
334 And whose solemn voice must be
335 Thine own echo--Liberty!
336 `On those who first should violate
337 Such sacred heralds in their state
338 Rest the blood that must ensue,
339 And it will not rest on you.
340 `And if then the tyrants dare
341 Let them ride among you there,
342 Slash, and stab, and maim, and hew,--
343 What they like, that let them do.
344 `With folded arms and steady eyes,
345 And little fear, and less surprise,
346 Look upon them as they slay
347 Till their rage has died away.
348 `Then they will return with shame
349 To the place from which they came,
350 And the blood thus shed will speak
351 In hot blushes on their cheek.
352 `Every woman in the land
353 Will point at them as they stand--
354 They will hardly dare to greet
355 Their acquaintance in the street.
356 `And the bold, true warriors
357 Who have hugged Danger in wars
358 Will turn to those who would be free,
359 Ashamed of such base company.
360 `And that slaughter to the Nation
361 Shall steam up like inspiration,
362 Eloquent, oracular;
363 A volcano heard afar.
364 `And these words shall then become
365 Like Oppression's thundered doom
366 Ringing through each heart and brain,
367 Heard again--again--again--
368 `Rise like Lions after slumber
369 In unvanquishable number--
370 Shake your chains to earth like dew
371 Which in sleep had fallen on you--
[(1)The following stanza is found in the Wise MS. and in edd. 1839,
but is wanting in the Hunt MS. and in ed. 1832:--
'Horses, oxen, have a home,
When from daily toil they come;
Household dogs, when the wind roars,
Find a home within warm doors.']
[(1)
The following stanza is found (cancelled) at this place in the Wise MS.:--
'From the cities where from caves,
Like the dead from putrid graves,
Troops of starvelings gliding come,
Living Tenants of a tomb.'].