POLITICAL VIEWS THROUGH SHELLEY AND TENNYSON’S POETRY

As I lay asleep in Italy

There came a voice from over the Sea,

And with great power it forth led me

To walk in the visions of Poesy.

I met Murder on the way -

He had a mask like Castlereagh -

Very smooth he looked, yet grim;

Seven blood-hounds followed him:

All were fat; and well they might

Be in admirable plight,

For one by one, and two by two,

He tossed the human hearts to chew

Which from his wide cloak he drew.

Next came Fraud, and he had on,

Like Eldon, an ermined gown;

His big tears, for he wept well,

Turned to mill-stones as they fell.

And the little children, who

Round his feet played to and fro,

Thinking every tear a gem,

Had their brains knocked out by them.

Clothed with the Bible, as with light,

And the shadows of the night,

Like Sidmouth, next, Hypocrisy

On a crocodile rode by.

And many more Destructions played

In this ghastly masquerade,

All disguised, even to the eyes,

Like Bishops, lawyers, peers, or spies.

Last came Anarchy: he rode

On a white horse, splashed with blood;

He was pale even to the lips,

Like Death in the Apocalypse.

And he wore a kingly crown;

And in his grasp a sceptre shone;

On his brow this mark I saw -

'I AM GOD, AND KING, AND LAW!'

With a pace stately and fast,

Over English land he passed,

Trampling to a mire of blood

The adoring multitude.

And a mighty troop around,

With their trampling shook the ground,

Waving each a bloody sword,

For the service of their Lord.

And with glorious triumph, they

Rode through England proud and gay,

Drunk as with intoxication

Of the wine of desolation.

O'er fields and towns, from sea to sea,

Passed the Pageant swift and free,

Tearing up, and trampling down;

Till they came to London town.

And each dweller, panic-stricken,

Felt his heart with terror sicken

Hearing the tempestuous cry

Of the triumph of Anarchy.

For with pomp to meet him came,

Clothed in arms like blood and flame,

The hired murderers, who did sing

'Thou art God, and Law, and King.

'We have waited, weak and lone

For thy coming, Mighty One!

Our Purses are empty, our swords are cold,

Give us glory, and blood, and gold.'

Lawyers and priests, a motley crowd,

To the earth their pale brows bowed;

Like a bad prayer not over loud,

Whispering - 'Thou art Law and God.' -

Then all cried with one accord,

'Thou art King, and God and Lord;

Anarchy, to thee we bow,

Be thy name made holy now!'

And Anarchy, the skeleton,

Bowed and grinned to every one,

As well as if his education

Had cost ten millions to the nation.

For he knew the Palaces

Of our Kings were rightly his;

His the sceptre, crown and globe,

And the gold-inwoven robe.

So he sent his slaves before

To seize upon the Bank and Tower,

And was proceeding with intent

To meet his pensioned Parliament

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:

'My father Time is weak and gray

With waiting for a better day;

See how idiot-like he stands,

Fumbling with his palsied hands!

He has had child after child,

And the dust of death is piled

Over every one but me -

Misery, oh, Misery!'

Then she lay down in the street,

Right before the horses' feet,

Expecting, with a patient eye,

Murder, Fraud, and Anarchy.

When between her and her foes

A mist, a light, an image rose,

Small at first, and weak, and frail

Like the vapour of a vale:

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,

It grew - a Shape arrayed in mail

Brighter than the viper's scale,

And upborne on wings whose grain

Was as the light of sunny rain.

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.

With step as soft as wind it passed

O'er the heads of men - so fast

That they knew the presence there,

And looked, - but all was empty air.

As flowers beneath May's footstep 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.

And the prostrate multitude

Looked - and ankle-deep in blood,

Hope, that maiden most serene,

Was walking with a quiet mien:

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.

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

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

Had turned every drop of blood

By which her face had been bedewed

To an accent unwithstood, -

As if her heart had cried aloud:

'Men of England, heirs of Glory,

Heroes of unwritten story,

Nurslings of one mighty Mother,

Hopes of her, and one another;

'Rise like Lions after slumber

In unvanquishable number,

Shake your chains to earth like dew

Which in sleep had fallen on you -

Ye are many - they are few.

'What is Freedom? - ye can tell

That which slavery is, too well -

For its very name has grown

To an echo of your own.

'Tis to work and have such pay

As just keeps life from day to day

In your limbs, as in a cell

For the tyrants' use to dwell,

'So that ye for them are made

Loom, and plough, and sword, and spade,

With or without your own will bent

To their defence and nourishment.

'Tis to see your children weak

With their mothers pine and peak,

When the winter winds are bleak, -

They are dying whilst I speak.

'Tis to hunger for such diet

As the rich man in his riot

Casts to the fat dogs that lie

Surfeiting beneath his eye;

'Tis to let the Ghost of Gold

Take from Toil a thousandfold

More that e'er its substance could

In the tyrannies of old.

'Paper coin - that forgery

Of the title-deeds, which ye

Hold to something of the worth

Of the inheritance of Earth.

'Tis to be a slave in soul

And to hold no strong control

Over your own wills, but be

All that others make of ye.

'And at length when ye complain

With a murmur weak and vain

'Tis to see the Tyrant's crew

Ride over your wives and you -

Blood is on the grass like dew.

'Then it is to feel revenge

Fiercely thirsting to exchange

Blood for blood -and wrong for wrong -

Do not thus when ye are strong.

'Birds find rest, in narrow nest

When weary of their wingèd quest

Beasts find fare, in woody lair

When storm and snow are in the air.

'Asses, swine, have litter spread

And with fitting food are fed;

All things have a home but one -

Thou, Oh, Englishman, hast none!

'This is slavery - savage men

Or wild beasts within a den

Would endure not as ye do -

But such ills they never knew.

'What art thou Freedom? O! could slaves

Answer from their living graves

This demand - tyrants would flee

Like a dream's dim imagery:

'Thou art not, as impostors say,

A shadow soon to pass away,

A superstition, and a name

Echoing from the cave of Fame.

'For the labourer thou art bread,

And a comely table spread

From his daily labour come

In a neat and happy home.

'Thou art clothes, and fire, and food

For the trampled multitude -

No - in countries that are free

Such starvation cannot be

As in England now we see.

'To the rich thou art a check,

When his foot is on the neck

Of his victim, thou dost make

That he treads upon a snake.

'Thou art Justice - ne'er for gold

May thy righteous laws be sold

As laws are in England - thou

Shield'st alike the high and low.

'Thou art Wisdom - Freemen never

Dream that God will damn for ever

All who think those things untrue

Of which Priests make such ado.

'Thou art Peace - never by thee

Would blood and treasure wasted be

As tyrants wasted them, when all

Leagued to quench thy flame in Gaul.

'What if English toil and blood

Was poured forth, even as a flood?

It availed, Oh, Liberty,

To dim, but not extinguish thee.

'Thou art Love - the rich have kissed

Thy feet, and like him following Christ,

Give their substance to the free

And through the rough world follow thee,

'Or turn their wealth to arms, and make

War for thy belovèd sake

On wealth, and war, and fraud- whence they

Drew the power which is their prey.

'Science, Poetry, and Thought

Are thy lamps; they make the lot

Of the dwellers in a cot

So serene, they curse it not.

'Spirit, Patience, Gentleness,

All that can adorn and bless

Art thou - let deeds, not words, express

Thine exceeding loveliness.

'Let a great Assembly be

Of the fearless and the free

On some spot of English ground

Where the plains stretch wide around.

'Let the blue sky overhead,

The green earth on which ye tread,

All that must eternal be

Witness the solemnity.

'From the corners uttermost

Of the bounds of English coast;

From every hut, village, and town

Where those who live and suffer moan,

'From the workhouse and the prison

Where pale as corpses newly risen,

Women, children, young and old

Groan for pain, and weep for cold -

'From the haunts of daily life

Where is waged the daily strife

With common wants and common cares

Which sows the human heart with tares-

'Lastly from the palaces

Where the murmur of distress

Echoes, like the distant sound

Of a wind alive around

'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 -

'Ye who suffer woes untold,

Or to feel, or to behold

Your lost country bought and sold

With a price of blood and gold -

'Let a vast assembly be,

And with great solemnity

Declare with measured words that ye

Are, as God has made ye, free -

'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.

'Let the tyrants pour around

With a quick and startling sound,

Like the loosening of a sea,

Troops of armed emblazonry.

Let the charged artillery drive

Till the dead air seems alive

With the clash of clanging wheels,

And the tramp of horses' heels.

'Let the fixèd bayonet

Gleam with sharp desire to wet

Its bright point in English blood

Looking keen as one for food.

'Let the horsemen's scimitars

Wheel and flash, like sphereless stars

Thirsting to eclipse their burning

In a sea of death and mourning.

'Stand ye calm and resolute,

Like a forest close and mute,

With folded arms and looks which are

Weapons of unvanquished war,

'And let Panic, who outspeeds

The career of armèd steeds

Pass, a disregarded shade

Through your phalanx undismayed.

'Let the laws of your own land,

Good or ill, between ye stand

Hand to hand, and foot to foot,

Arbiters of the dispute,

'The old laws of England - they

Whose reverend heads with age are gray,

Children of a wiser day;

And whose solemn voice must be

Thine own echo - Liberty!

'On those who first should violate

Such sacred heralds in their state

Rest the blood that must ensue,

And it will not rest on you.

'And if then the tyrants dare

Let them ride among you there,

Slash, and stab, and maim, and hew, -

What they like, that let them do.

'With folded arms and steady eyes,

And little fear, and less surprise,

Look upon them as they slay

Till their rage has died away.

'Then they will return with shame

To the place from which they came,

And the blood thus shed will speak

ANALYSIS

“The Mask of Anarchy” is formed by ninety stanzas. The quartet is the structure chosen by Shelley to write his poem; however, we can find several stanzas of five verses. It is not physically divided into chapters like many other poems of similar length such as Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”.

The poem is divided mainly into two big parts: the first one talks about the historical fact itself, the Peterloo Riots. In this part, Shelley describes what happened that August 16^th in Manchester; the second one is a kind of political discourse in favour of freedom encouraging the “Englishmen” to fight against the tyrants.

Lines 1 – 37.

When the Peterloo Riots takes place, Shelley is in Italy. Despite not being in England, he has heard about what has happened in Manchester and wants to write about it. So, in the first stanza he justifies the writing of the poem not saying directly that he has heard the news but saying that “As I lay asleep in Italy / There came a voice from over the Sea, / And with great power it forth led me / To walk in the visions of Poesy.” (lines 1 – 4). This reference to an inspiring voice that forces the author to write about what it has told him is typical of the mythological and epic poetry.

The poet also applies to the ideas of freedom and imagination in his poetry. In “The Mask of Anarchy”, Shelley criticises some political British figures through the visionary images of Hypocrisy, Murder and Fraud. As Shelley puts it, "I met Murder on the way - / He had a mask like Castlereagh - / Very smooth he looked, yet grim; / Seven bloodhounds followed him" (lines 5 – 8). The Anarchy as an embodiment of these three vices takes control over the country, claiming that "I am God, And King, And Law" (line37).

Shelley goes beyond a simple portrayal of radical ideas of freedom and equality. In this poem Shelley creates the utopian vision of a concord between the group of oppressors and the group of oppressed. The images that Shelley utilises implicitly point at the British legal system that is concealed under the principles of justice. Despite the fact that law is aimed at averting cruelty and terror, Shelley demonstrates that in reality it inspires the wish for strike in people. In fact, Shelley's poem is preoccupied with certain human attitudes and features, such as fanatics and prigs, deceit and pretence. The poet draws a parallel between the tyranny of the modern world and the tyranny of the medieval era. Thus, when he embodies Eldon, Sidmouth and Castlereagh in the presented negative images, he reveals that many people are still obsessed with superstition and cruelty of the Middle ages. However, the negative images of Hypocrisy, Murder and Fraud are further changed for the images of Hope and Shape. In particular, the image of Hope uncovers the forces that can eliminate anarchy and inequality in Britain, while the image of Shape reveals Shelley's support for non-violent actions in the struggle for freedom. (5)

The first nine stanzas of “The Mask of Anarchy” detail a journey on which Shelley imagined himself going on after the massacre. While on the way, he met a man named Murder (line 5), who fed his fat hounds human hearts, a man named Fraud (line 14), who hid his evil intentions even to the eyes of the most educated, such as bishops and lawyers. The final man he met was named Anarchy (line 30). Anarchy rides “On a white horse, splashed with blood;” (line 31), wearing a kingly crown and holding a scepter. On his brow, it is stated that the words "I AM GOD, AND KING AND LAW!" (lines 34 – 37). (4)

These three characters are the first allegories in “The Mask of Anarchy”. Murder represents the murders of the British government, at the Manchester Rallies in 1819 and in general, and it's disregard for the livelihood of the poor. Fraud represents the manner in which the British poor are deceived in the 19th century, and Anarchy represents the misgovernment of Britain under George III, and the British belief that the king has a "divine right" (The Peterloo Massacre 1). Shelley's first few stanzas set the tone for his poem and show how he feels about the British government. (5)

After the first stanza, Shelley starts describing the charge of the cavalry led by Murder, Fraud and Hypocrisy mounted on terrible beasts such as crocodiles. After them, Anarchy appears on a white horse “like Death in the Apocalypse.” (line 33). It’s wearing a crown and a sceptre and “I am God, and King, and Law” (line 37), is marked on his brow. Shelley is defining here the members of the British government as beasts who do not hesitate in attacking their own people. Anarchy, representing the King of England, is admired by lawyers, priests and bishops, representing the high class and the Church. It seems a bit contradictory to characterise the most powerful political figure, the King, as the Anarchy, and that is the irony that Shelley shows clearly in the first part of “The Mask of Anarchy”. He is able to define the government, the Establishment using the features of what they most hate.

Another important figure appears at the end of this first part, is the link between the symbolical description of the historical facts and the political speech of the second part of the poem. Hope, represented as a maniac maid, although it seems closer to Despair. She is the daughter of Time who is described as an idiot and a weak figure who waits for a better day instead of fighting for it. It is Hope the one who defeats Anarchy and will lead the subjugated people to their freedom. And this is the turning point in the poem. From there onwards Shelley will explain and expose his political ideas.

Lines 38 – 97.

The next few stanzas detail how Anarchy goes about destroying Britain. In stanza X, Shelley states: "With a pace stately and fast,/ Over English land he passed/ Trampling to a mire of blood/ The adoring multitude (lines 38 – 41). While destroying Britain systematically, Anarchy gains a group of followers, and they went "Tearing up and trampling down;/ Till they came to London town" (lines 52 – 53) .The common people in London become fearful of Anarchy and his followers, but the nobles meet him singing "Thou art God, and Law, and King." (line 61). Anarchy and his followers eventually seize the Bank of London and London Tower, "When one fled past, a maniac maid,/ And her name was Hope, she said;/ But she looked more like Despair,” (lines 86 – 88). These stanzas continue to show how the noble class in Britain is sapping the economy and keeping the lower class in a poor state. (4)

The thirteenth stanza represents the turning point of the work, when Hope, who represents the hope, held by the poor, that in time, circumstances will get better. Hope begins criticizing Anarchy, saying that she is tired of waiting for a better day, and that everybody should see that Anarchy has been destroying Britain. She states that "'He has had child after child,/ And the dust of death is piled/ Over everyone but me-/ Misery, oh Misery!" (lines 94 – 97). (4)

Lines 98 – 179.

The second part of the poem starts with, probably the most well-known two stanzas where Shelley speaks through the mouth of the Earth (England) to his people, “Men of England” (line 147), and “heirs of Glory” (line 147), encouraging them to rise like Lions and get rid of the chains that restrain their freedom. This passage is very powerful since it is written in a style which goes back to the speeches given by kings and captains to their soldiers in mythological texts. Shelley compares the “Men of England” with Lions. He establishes that comparison because the Lion is one of the main icons of England. It is a symbol of power and honour. It is commonly associated to the image of King Richard Lionheart. However, Shelley is not applying that term to any noble or aristocrat but to the English people in general who, according to Shelley, are the real power of England. Shelley will end his poem using that stanza again.

After that Shelley introduces the topic of Freedom: “What is Freedom?” (line 156), he says. Then, he starts criticising the political system which is described as a sort of feudal system, representative of the Medieval Ages when the common people were rather slaves than free people. Although the style may lead the reader to think that the poem is about something that happened in the XV century, in fact, it is talking about XIX century. Shelley defends the rebellion against the “tyrants”, the oppressors and those who obtain benefit from other’s work. He is in favour of a violent rebellion, since the oppressor use it as much as they please to “control” their subdits: “blood for blood” and “wrong for wrong” (line 195).

She then lay down in the street, waiting for Anarchy, Fraud, and Murder to kill her (line 98). At this point, however, a mist begins to form between her and Anarchy. Lightning and thunder appeared, and "It grew-a Shape arrayed in mail/ Brighter than the viper's scale,/ And upborne on wings whose grain/ Was as the light of sunny rain"(lines 110 -113). As the figure takes more and more shape, it becomes obvious that it is the horse of death. After the horse runs to Anarchy, "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" (lines 130 – 134). In this case, the Horse of Death (line 132) represents the British poor, who could easily overthrow the government and end all of their troubles. (4)

The next fifty-seven stanzas are a lecture by Hope on why the British people should overthrow the government. She speaks of how the government should be, and that they should be just to all. She also states that the root of the government's evil was gold, and says: "'Tis to let the Ghost of Gold/ Take from Toil a thousandfold/ More than e'er its substance could/ In the tyrannies of old" (lines 176 – 179). (4)

More subversive because it can envision the oppressed collectively seeing what the visionary sees, the unmasking of anarchy as the rule of monarchy and the death of tyrants on the bloody field of their own creation as the beginning of a new call to class solidarity and courageous resistance: "A sense awakening and yet tender (line 136). . . Had turned every drop of blood / By which [Earth’s] face had been bedewed / To an accent unwithstood" (lines 143 – 145). The call to the "Men of England" that follows is indeed an exhortation not spoken by any agent. It is, rather, a call "unwithstood" (line 145) because, as Steven Jones has implied, it is the ineluctable voice of the historical moment and opportunity itself . The real conflict and contradiction of this poem, then, emerges not from the political potency of words. It is the conflict over the revolutionary violence that might follow the new comprehension and the new demands of the oppressed. The danger is not at all that one particular poem may be politically superfluous; the danger is that Shelley’s "Shape arrayed in mail," imaginary though she may be, allegorizes a moment of new popular consciousness which Shelley’s poem simultaneously participates in, records, and exhorts. As part of a broad popular uprising, Shelley’s poem may be part of a larger and all-too-effective culture of resistance. So Shelley calls for a new assembly, a fantasized repetition of the St. Peter’s field gathering, in which the passive victimization of the protesters is transformed into the passive resistance of fully politicized agents.

Lines 180 – 300.

The remarkable gesture of the poem is the power of definition and of language it shifts to the laboring poor. "What art thou Freedom?" (line 209) asks the poet. His answer, "For the labourer thou art bread," (line 216) and "clothes, and fire, and food" (line 221) grounds and determines Freedom’s other roles as Justice, Wisdom, Peace, and Love in the following stanzas. Clearly, Shelley identifies this as the only class whose interests and ideals are one. In this instance, the poet surrenders his power of metaphor to the material experience of the silent worker. And while the poet may not awaken in the course of the poem, the masses are called upon to 'Rise like lions after slumber' (line 151). The poet directs the masses’ understanding only this far: in allowing them to possess for themselves their own experience of Freedom he reminds them that self-possession precludes vengeful violence. If slavery is "hunger" (line 172) it is also "to feel revenge" (line 193). This warning is an index of the power of self-definition, is predicated upon a sudden accession of assured self-command. And there is no telling what such people might do. exposes the work’s origin in a paralyzed and distant intellectual’s hope to lead a nationalist moral apocalypse.

There is also a critique of the living conditions of English people. Shelley says things like: “ No - in countries that are free / Such starvation cannot be / As in England now we see” (lines 223 – 225) and “All things have a home but one - / Thou, Oh, Englishman, hast none!.” (lines 203 – 204). Shelley addresses directly to the audience (“thou” – you) in order to make people react. He wants them to focus their attention on what is happening.

“'Let a great Assembly be / Of the fearless and the free” (lines 262 – 263). This is the solution for Shelley to the problems, troubles and difficulties of the English people. An assembly to discuss and pass laws for the benefit of the majority and not only for the rich ones, an assembly which truly represents England, an assembly that will make England free of those who tried to destroy it.

The Mask of Anarchy proposes a new form of resistance that is based on passivity and words rather than on real actions against suppression and inequality: "Let a vast assembly be, / And… Declare with measured words that ye / Are… free" (lines 294 – 297). For Shelley, the non-violent struggle is the only appropriate way to eliminate any social tensions. Pointing at the necessity of poor labourers to "rise like lions after slumber" (line 151) ,the poet simultaneously restricts their actions. Shelley states that freedom should not be transformed into a tool for struggle and violence, as violent actions may only aggravate the situation. Shelley can fantasize himself as revolutionary leader, who, though far from the action. The masses, like their poet leader, will arm themselves with "words" (line 299) that are "swords" (line 300). (5)

Lines 301 – 371.

The scandal of Shelley’s great political ballad, "The Mask of Anarchy," is that its appeal to the power of mass resistance is written from aristocratic exile. The "Mask" appeals to an ultimate and utopian harmony between the masses and the oppressor’s troops, grounded in a common nationalism ("the old laws of England" (line 330)) and an idealized shame provoked in that nation by the willing martyrdom of passive protesters who virtually invite the army to "slash, and stab, and maim, and hew." (line 341). Tells the people to start an entirely new country, without preserving any of the ideals of the former government. "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!" (lines 330 - 334). Hope also tells them that, if ever tyrants rise up like Anarchy, that they must have another revolution immediately.

"On those who first should violate/ Such sacred heralds in their state/ Rest the blood that must ensue,/ And it will not rest on you./ And if then the tyrants dare/Let them ride among you there/ Slash, and stab, and maim, and hew,-/ What they like, that let them do" (lines 335 – 342). In the final stanza, Hope gives the call for the poor to rise up when she says: "Rise like Lions after slumber/ In unvanquishable number-/ Shake your chains to earth like dew/ Which in sleep had fallen on you-/ Ye are many - they are few" (lines 367 – 371). The last line of the last stanza, “Ye are many - they are few” (line 371), sums up the entire idea of Hope's speech: There are many more poor people than rich, so a revolution would inevitably be successful.

LIFE AND CONTEMPORARY EVENTS

Written in 1819: Shelley moved about between several parts of Italy. Finished Julian and Maddalo; Prometheus Unbound (in two stages). Wrote The Cenci; The Mask of Anarchy; Peter Bell the Third; Ode to the west Wind. Began A Philosofical View of Reform. Published Rosalind and Helen. Son William died, son Percy Florence born.

Peterloo masacre at Manchester. The “Six Acts” (repressive measures) passed by Parliament to stop farmers who had been protesting against the Corn Laws.

The Six Acts put limits on public meetings and on journalistic reporting and gave police greater authority to search people and seize their property. The first paddle wheel steamship, the Savannah, crossed the Atlantic ocean in 39 days. The ship carried no passengers because people feared that the pressurized steam engine might explode.

Critical Commentary

The tradition of reading Shelley among radical politicians, the political context of his poetry and prose was not given much prominence in the writings of academis critics untl fairly recently. Leavis did praise The Mask Of Anarchy, and gradually the satirical and comical as well as solemn poems have come to be properly appreciated.

The very assertiveness and didacticism have now attracted the attention of some deconstructionist critics who have detected an ambivalence in Shelley’s rhetoric. The poems emerge as less categorical and more subtlrçe processes of thought. This approach whre words lack a stability and leave themselves available to a variety of responses. Languagem according to Shelley, is endlessly coloured by the assumptions and training of the user.

The interplay of the personal and the impersonal, the internal and the external, the concious and the unconscious, runs through most of his poetry. Dreams feature prominently and it is not surprising that poems as different from each other as The Mask Of Anarchy and The Triumph Of Live should both take the form of visions. In The Mask Of Anarchy and The Cenci they feature as leaders or instigators and he appears to grant them a special role in effecting change in society. None the less, he also shows a tendency to devise women so extraordinary that they can be admired only from afar and thus remain safely out of reach of the male.

Although he died young, he was in no way inexperienced or ingnorant man. He had seen the ravages of war, he followed with interest the public events of his time, he had seen poverty and brutality and prejuice, and he had experienced love and happiness. As he grew older, the world came to appear more tragically paradoxical.

In his poems most specifically concerned with political revolution, The Revolt Of The Islam and The Mask Of Anarchy, there is a measure of violence on the side of the oppressed and the imagery often suggests violence: “Rise like lions after slumber”.

Shelley felt that some hope has to be rescued from the direst circumstances; otherwise, there is no possibility of change and progress.

ANALYSIS

Lines 1 – 4.

This poem is comprised of six numbered stanzas varying in length from six to twelve lines. Each line is in dimeter, which means it has two stressed syllables; moreover, each stressed syllable is followed by two unstressed syllables, making the rhythm dactylic. The use of "falling" rhythm, in which the stress is on the first beat of each metrical unit, and then "falls off" for the rest of the length of the meter, is appropriate in a poem about the devastating fall of the British brigade. The rhyme scheme varies with each stanza.

"This poem (written at Farringford, and published in The Examiner, Dec. 9, 1854) was written after reading the first report of the Times correspondent, where only 607 sabres are mentioned as having taken part in this charge (Oct. 25, 1854). Drayton's Agincourt was not in my mind; the poem is dactylic, and founded on the phrase, “Some one had blundered.” (14)

At the request of Lady Franklin he distributed copies among the soldiers in the Crimea and the hospital at Scutari. The charge lasted only twenty-five minutes. It was heard that one of the men, with the blood streaming from his leg, as he was riding by his officer, said, `Those d--d heavies will never chaff us again,' and fell down dead." (14)

It is a famous Regiment of 600 men. The poem was based on a newspaper account describing a battle. The article glorified the slaughter of men. The commander didn't understand the orders given to him to replace some guns held by the Russians and he sent them up the wrong valley. All that had happened is "someone had blundered" (line 12) even the soldiers knew that. On the first two lines the repetition of 'half a league'is getting the poem into a rhythm of galloping horses, This adds realism as the Light Brigade were a cavalry unit, and to emphasise the charge of the horse as it sounds like a charge. (9)

The beginning lines (1 & 2) of the poem throw the reader into the center of action, with a rousing chant that drives the reader, both in its description and in its galloping rhythm, toward the battle. A "league" is approximately three miles long: charging horses could cover half a league in a few minutes. The audiences of the time of the poem would have been familiar with the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War, upon which the poem is based, and would have known from the beginning that they were charging to their own doom. (13)

This poem is effective largely because of the way it conveys the movement and sound of the charge via a strong, repetitive falling meter: "Half a league, half a league (line 1) / Half a league onward.(line 2)" In line 2 shows that the men were overcoming fear, being brave by going onward. The repetition adds realism as the Light Brigade were a cavalry unit, and to emphasise the charge of the horse as it sounds like a charge. It seems the command was given for the soldiers to go to their death they knew this but they carried on to show that they would die for their country. The plodding pace of the repetitions seems to subsume all individual impulsiveness in ponderous collective action. The poem does not speak of individual troops but rather of "the six hundred" (line 8) and then "all that was left of them." (line 48). (12)

The poem tells the story of a brigade consisting of 600 soldiers who rode on horseback into the "valley of death" for half a league (about one and a half miles). “The valley of death”(line 3) is a metaphor and imagery. They were obeying a command to charge the enemy forces that had been seizing their guns and that was a dangerous situation.

The literary device Tennyson most commonly employs in this poem is repetition, but he also makes use of allusion and personification. In the first stanza, as we saw before, he repeats the phrase “half a league” three times in order to convey the arduousness of the charge. It relates the fact that each league gained was a separate feat for the brigade.

In line 3 he also begins the repetition of “rode the six hundred,” a phrase which emphasizes the small number of valiant soldiers riding against the “mouth of hell” (line 25) itself. Tennyson also includes the first reference to the “valley of Death” (line 7) in the first stanza. This reference is continued throughout the poem. It functions as an allusion to the “valley of the shadow of death” in the twenty-third Psalm of the Bible and describes the charge. The allusion to the twenty-third Psalm serves to instil in the reader the sense of fearlessness that the brigade has because the psalm speaks of how evil in not to be feared, not even in the shadow of death itself. The reference to the valley also paints in the reader’s mind an image of being enclosed by greater things on all sides, a feeling no doubt shared by the soldiers. (10)

Lines 5 – 17

Lines 5-7 tell us that the soldiers had to obey what ‘he’ said no matter what, even if it was dangerous. Soldiers had to be brave to do this. The repetition of “rode the six hundred” (line8) emphasises the small number or brave soldiers and the danger surrounding them. In “"Charge for the guns!" he said:” (line 6) we interpret “he said:” as the person who was in charge of the Brigade.

Most literature portrays soldiers at heroic, especially when they give up their lives for a cause. Lord Alfred Tennyson's poem, "The Charge of the Light Brigade", coveys the message of idiotic heroism. The poem implies that dying for your country has a lot more to do with stupidity, rather than honour. In "The Charge of the Light Brigade", the soldiers know they are going to die but still go into the `valley of death'. This shows that they are heroes, but foolish. We can see this when Tennyson says:

Was there a man dismayed (line 10)/ Not though the soldiers knew (line 11)/ Someone had blundered: (line 12)/ Theirs not to make reply, (line 13)/ Theirs not to reason why, (line 14)/ Theirs but to do and die (line 15). (8)

The rhyming of `reply', `why' and `die' foregrounds the hopelessness of their situation. An ordinary man, "someone", is responsible for the death of so many soldiers. It shows a human being has so much power to send six hundred soldiers to their graves. Tennyson does not refer to the rank to show that the individual is not that important, he is just a human being. It is impersonal to show that he has no honour. A soldier may not question his superior; therefore the soldiers make this idiotic charge. Tennyson suggests its idiotic heroism; the soldiers are noble but not the commander. The poem does not affirm the glory of dying for your country but reveals the thoughtless death sentence imposed on the soldiers (8). It takes a “someone” to lead “six hundred” (line 17) to their graves. We as readers learn that before we honour people we must first understand what the achieved and if it was honourable. Both poems deconstruct the political rhetoric political leaders' use when they want to entice young men to enlist in their armies to gain honour.

While lauding the heroism of the noble six hundred, he makes no attempt to downplay the pointlessness of the charge itself. As we see in lines 11 – 15, the last verse is easily the best known, and oftenest quoted, for its vivid portrayal of bravery in the face of stupidity - the poem has become a sort of anthem of futility. (11)

Not a single soldier was discouraged or distressed by the command to charge forward, even though all the soldiers realized that their commander had made a terrible mistake: "Someone had blundered." (line 12). The role of the soldier is to obey and "not to make reply (line 13)/...not to reason why, (line 14)" so they followed orders and rode into the "valley of death." (line 16-17).

In his poem Tennyson also provides the reader with some insight into the psyche of the men of the brigade. The first glimpse of the soldiers’ state of mind given in the poem comes in the form of the valley of death (line 7). The reader is told that the soldiers face certain death, but the phrase, through its biblical allusion, demonstrates to the reader that the evil is face without fear. Tennyson also gives a more direct insight into the psyche of the brigade when he writes that the soldiers knew “Some one had blunder’d,” (line 12) and that they knew their place was not to question orders but “to do and die.” (line 15).

Lines 18 – 55.

The 600 soldiers were assaulted by the shots of shells of canons, lines 18 – 22, in front and on both sides of them. Still, they rode courageously forward toward their own deaths: "Into the jaws of Death (line 24) / Into the mouth of hell (line 25) / Rode the six hundred." (line 26). The soldiers struck the enemy gunners with their unsheathed swords and charged at the enemy army while the rest of the world looked on in wonder. Tennyson describes the valiant charge of the light brigade into the “jaws of death.” (line 24) He makes use of repetition, allusion, and personification to paint a vivid picture of the charge, and, at the same time, he gives the reader a glimpse into the psyche of the valiant soldiers. (12)

Tennyson uses the same rhyme (and occasionally even the same final word) for several consecutive lines: "Flashed all their sabres bare / Flashed as they turned in air / Sab'ring the gunners there." (lines 31 – 33). The onomatopoeia “Flash’d” in the fourth stanza, describes the sound of a sword being pulled out. When you imagine these sounds it helps you to picture what was happening.

They rode into the artillery smoke and broke through the enemy line, destroying their Cossack and Russian opponents. Then they rode back from the offensive, but they had lost many men so they were "not the six hundred" (lines 37 – 38) any more.

Canons behind (lines 39 – 41) and on both sides of the soldiers now assaulted them with shots and shells (line 43). As the brigade rode "back from the mouth of hell," (line 47) soldiers and horses collapsed; few remained to make the journey back. The world marvelled at the courage of the soldiers; indeed, their glory is undying: the poem states these noble 600 men remain worthy of honor and tribute today.

The poem also makes use of anaphora, in which the same word is repeated at the beginning of several consecutive lines: “Canon to the right of them,/ Cannon to the left of them,/ Cannon in front of them” (lines 39 – 41). Here the method creates a sense of unrelenting assault; at each line our eyes meet the word "cannon," just as the soldiers meet their flying shells at each turn.. Also is another repeated phrase in the poem that is found in the third and fifth stanzas of the poem. The repetition of the phrase serves to add to the claustrophobic feeling in the reader that began with the mention of the charge into the valley. It also reminds the reader that the cannon of the enemy are all that can be seen no matter where the valiant soldiers look. (7)

Death also becomes personified in the third stanza when Tennyson gives it jaws. The personification of death is meant to shift the poem’s tone to a more carnal tone. The brigade is now pitted against the ultimate beast that threatens devour them. They must now kill or be killed. The “jaws of death” (line 46) and “mouth of hell” (line 47) are also repeated images in the poem. They paint a picture of soldiers starring into a black abyss that is about to consume them.

The reader knows that these men are blindly motivated by loyalty and a sense of duty, in lines 39 – 41: “Cannon to the right of them,/ Cannon to the left of them,/ Cannon in front of them” is another description Tennyson uses to take the reader in to minds of soldiers. This description allows the reader to see the battle as the soldier saw it. No matter where you looked, all that could be seen was certain death. No safety could be found. After being taken into the psyche of the brigade and seeing a vivid picture of the valiant charge the reader cannot hope to do anything but admire the valour of the soldiers and “Honour the Light Brigade.” (line 54). (10)

In The Examiner, praises the Brigade, "When can their glory fade? (line 50), O the wild charge they made!"(line 51), while mourning the appalling futility of the charge: "Not tho' the soldier knew (line 11), Someone had blunder'd (line 12)... , … Charging an army (line 34), while all the world wonder'd." (line 52). (7)

Each stanza tells a different part of the story, and there is a delicate balance between nobility and brutality throughout. Although Tennyson's subject is the nobleness of supporting one's country, and the poem's tone and hoofbeat cadences are rousing, it pulls no punches about the horror of war: "cannon to right of them, cannon to left of them, cannon in front of them, volley'd and thunder'd" (lines 39 – 42). With "into the valley of Death" (lines 7 and 16).

Tennyson works in resonance with "the shadow of the valley of Death" from Psalm 23, then and now, often read at funerals. Tennyson's Crimea does not offer the abstract tranquil death of the psalm but is instead predatory and menacing: "into the jaws of Death" (line 24) and "into the mouth of Hell". (line 25).

The alliterative "Storm'd at with shot and shell" (line 22 and 43) echoes the whistling of ball at the cavalry charge through it. After the fury of the charge, the final notes are gentle, reflective and laden with sorrow: "Then they rode back, but not Not the six hundred" (line 37 and 38). Tennyson recited this poem onto a wax cylinder in 1890.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Throughout the 1700s and 1800s and starting with Peter the Great, Russia reached southward to annex countries in the Middle East, most notably Iran and Turkey. Three wars between the years 1804 and 1827 alone were fought between Russia and Iran, resulting in the addition of Georgia and Azerbaijan to the Russian empire. Attempts to take Turkey, under the guise of protecting it, were halted because the Turks, with British and French help, were able to defend their country. Turkey lies on the south shore of the Black Sea. Just over 100 miles north, across the water, is the Crimean Peninsula.

In 1850, Tennyson was appointed by Queen Victoria to succeed Wordsworth as poet laureate of England. Although Victoria's reign is associated with the Enlightenment, a time when logic and reason were the celebrated ideals, this poem celebrates the native dignity of the uneducated cavalrymen, of whom Tennyson says, "Theirs was not to reason why." Perhaps because it celebrates the common man at a time of social change that generally favored the intellectual, the poem was tremendously popular in its day, although generations that followed have remembered it, usually negatively, as a celebration of war's glory. In Tennyson's time, though, the poem had such all-around popularity that the poet was induced years later to return to the same battle, in a poem examining a much more successful assault by the British troops: "The Charge of the Heavy Brigade at Balaclava," published in 1885's Tiresias and Other Poems. (2)

CONCLUSION

The Mask of Anarchy occasions a new meditation on committed art—or rather, provokes readings by Mark Kipperman and Rob Kaufman that are an Aufebung of the older discussions of politics and art. Starting with the "scandal" of Shelley's aristocratic exile but hardly ending with it, as the actual social origins of writing are not ultimately decisive anyway. Shelley's political thinking through the form of the poem, The Mask of Anarchy, tests and challenges the readily available conceptualizations about politics and explores new possibilities. The poem itself is a "scandal to literary form and decorum." Shelley is our contemporary because of the poem's development of the problem of forgiveness within a revolutionary culture. Hardly an ideological evasion of political conflict, forgiveness is a difficult labor of deconstructing oppression without also reproducing it. An ideological complexity is gender, a prominent category in Gladden's analysis of the transgressive body of the "queen," and present as well in The Mask of Anarchy, particularly the last third of the poem spoken "as if" by a female "Earth."

Shelley implicitly critiques his own role and power even while the separation of labor enables this critique. At the same time, from his position of relative autonomy, Shelley can anticipate a harmony of ideal and material experience that scandalizes and should shame the present. And what of Shelley’s hope for the moral force of the masses’ protest? Shelley demands that the poor stand upon their urgent material needs not only as a class demand for satisfaction and power but also as a just sign of their self-respect. Self-respect in itself becomes a categorical demand on the community to reciprocate respect. When the illusory "mask" of anarchy falls away, it is the ruler who is the anarch, the victims who stand for the absolute moral order of reciprocal justice. As for Shelley’s moral/political hope for popular forgiveness of the tyrant and avoiding revenge in the name of nation building, we dare not, even (especially) in our century call this naive. Before a space can be cleared for forgiveness, a circle must be drawn around the murderers and the tyrants, and that clearing may not be bloodless. Shelley, even in his proleptic rush to the ideal and the hoped-for harmonies of civil life, did not overlook this. But he locates the most deadly and persisting violence with the anarchs. Our bloody twentieth century has rolled over millions like a column of tanks in an acrid night. Standing today on the very horizon of the twenty first, we must believe that it is not naive to hope that the terrible, titanic, scandalous labor of forgiveness—the only true, ideal act of civil nation-building—that this is no throwback to the last century’s idealist nationalism but rather a glimmer of light from the next one. It is our utopian anticipation.

This event roused the spirit of his youth, when he attempted to excite his countrymen to fight the power of the ruling class. Inspired by these feelings, Shelley wrote a satire, “The Mask of Anarchy” in a purposefully lax and familiar measure so that the common people would understand the meaning. “The Mask of Anarchy” is an effective piece of literature because Shelley combines clever allegories and irony with his own style, making a beautiful and inspiring poem.

“The Mask of Anarchy” is a very effective attempt to call the British poor to arms. Percy Shelley saw the injustice imposed on the British people by the ruling class, and called for it to stop. He brought eloquent points against the British government, and successfully turned the government into villains with Anarchy, Murder, and Fraud. If Shelley had not used allegories to describe the British government and instead named the government specifically, there would have been outrage among everybody over the content of his work. “The Mask of Anarchy” also includes many romantic themes, such as revolution and the supernatural. The Horse of Death, an allegory of the common people, is literally a supernatural figure who reigns supreme, as a god.

Investigating in depth the Romantic elements of these poetic works we can find that the earlier criticism of British Romantic poetry points at the fact that the events and characters depicted in Romantic poems are fabricated and preoccupied with an idealist vision that does not reveal reality. However, the recent criticism based on valid historical analyses goes beyond this limited viewpoint by revealing that Romantic poetry reflects profound religious, political and social contexts. According to Everest (1990), Romantic poems are "production of a particular complex of personalities, social events and developments, at a certain place and time" (p.87). Such critics as Wolfson (1997), Butler (1982), Erdman (1954) and Watson (1985) suggest that this is especially true in regard to the poems of William Blake and Percy Bysshe Shelley, in which the poets depict social and political conflicts in nineteenth-century Britain.

"The Charge of the Light Brigade" recalls a disastrous historical military engagement that took place during the initial phase of the Crimean War fought between Turkey and Russia (1854-56). Under the command of Lord Raglan, British forces entered the war in September 1854 to prevent the Russians from obtaining control of the important sea routes through the Dardanelles. From the beginning, the war was plagued by a series of misunderstandings and tactical blunders, one of which serves as the subject of this poem: on October 25, 1854, as the Russians were seizing guns from British soldiers, Lord Raglan sent desperate orders to his Light Cavalry Brigade to fend off the Russians. Finally, one of his orders was acted upon, and the brigade began charging--but in the wrong direction! Over 650 men rushed forward, and well over 100 died within the next few minutes. As a result of the battle, Britain lost possession of the majority of its forward defenses and the only metaled road in the area.

In the 21st century, the British involvement in the Crimean War is dismissed as an instance of military incompetence; we remember it only for the heroism displayed in it by Florence Nightingale, the famous nurse. However, for Tennyson and most of his contemporaries, the war seemed necessary and just. He wrote this poem as a celebration of the heroic soldiers in the Light Brigade who fell in service to their commander and their cause. The poem glorifies war and courage, even in cases of complete inefficiency and waste.

Unlike the medieval and mythical subject of "The Lady of Shalott" or the deeply personal grief of "Tears, Idle Tears," this poem instead deals with an important political development in Tennyson's day. As such, it is part of a sequence of political and military poems that Tennyson wrote after he became Poet Laureate of England in 1850, including "Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington" (1852) and "Riflemen, Form" (1859). These poems reflect Tennyson's emerging national consciousness and his sense of compulsion to express his political views.

In "The Charge of the Light Brigade," he speaks out in favor of a controversial diplomatic maneuver, the disastrous charge on the Russian army by British troops in the Crimean War. Thus, for all his love of the past, Tennyson also maintained a lively interest in the developments of his day, remaining deeply committed to reforming the society in which he lived and to which he gave voice.

Lord Raglan, who played such an important role in the battle, is only vaguely referred to in the line "someone had blundered." Interestingly, Tennyson omitted this critical and somewhat subversive line in the 1855 version of this poem, but the writer John Ruskin later convinced him to restore it for the sake of the poem's artistry. Although it underwent several revisions following its initial publication in 1854, the poem as it stands today is a moving tribute to courage and heroism in the face of devastating defeat.

Tennyson’s use of literary devices to paint a mental picture of a heroic charge and the insight he gives the reader into the minds of the valiant men who made it make his “Charge of the Light Brigade” a powerful poem. It is a fitting tribute to the soldiers who fought the war that elicited the world’s highest military honour: the Victoria Cross.

“The Charge of the Light Brigade” was certainly an example of bravado, and in part through Tennyson's poem it was mythologized into an example of British bravery. "The public regarded the charge as a deed of spectacular heroism, not often pausing to reflect, like a correspondent in the Spectator: 'The order was a blunder; . . . the Balaklava charge should warn them [the government] how dangerous it is to select officers for staff appointments on any other ground than that of personal fitness'" (Vulliamy, 150). There was "an eagerness [on the part of British public opinion] to find heroes in a wasteful war. The public treated what happened as a victory for courage rather than a defeat through stupidity and blunder. The surviving members of the Light Brigade and Lord Cardigan, never known as a likable man, became heroic figures when word reached Britain about the brigade's willingness to obey orders at all costs" (Goldberg, 38).

The Charge of the Light Brigade was certainly an example of bravado, and in part through Tennyson's poem it was mythologized into an example of British bravery. "The public regarded the charge as a deed of spectacular heroism, not often pausing to reflect, like a correspondent in the Spectator: 'The order was a blunder; . . . the Balaklava charge should warn them [the government] how dangerous it is to select officers for staff appointments on any other ground than that of personal fitness'" (Vulliamy, 150). There was "an eagerness [on the part of British public opinion] to find heroes in a wasteful war. The public treated what happened as a victory for courage rather than a defeat through stupidity and blunder. The surviving members of the Light Brigade and Lord Cardigan, never known as a likable man, became heroic figures when word reached Britain about the brigade's willingness to obey orders at all costs" (Goldberg, 38). The Tennyson connection is instructive, because according to his own account, his poem "was written after reading the first report of the Times correspondent . . . my poem is dactylic, and founded on the phrase, 'Some one had blundered.' " (Poems, II, 369). Though Tennyson made it quite clear that the charge was the result of someone's foolish mistake, nonetheless the impression that remained with the reading public was one of poetic glorification ("When can their glory fade?"). Tennyson also wrote another Crimean War poem, albeit less well known, about the charge of the Heavy Brigade. It evokes the charge of the "gallant three hundred" who charged uphill to attack "thousands of Russians." "Thousands of horsemen had gather'd there on the height" and Scarlett's men "Drove thro' the midst of the foe" who surrounded them. All the onlookers thought they must be lost in "the heart of the Russian hordes," when suddenly the enemy broke, as the Heavy Brigade. (15)

At first glance nothing seems more un-Shelleyean than patriotism. Nothing seems more opposed to Shelley’s professed cosmopolitanism, to his philosophical skepticism, to his Godwinian disinterestedness, to his moral universalism, and to his political radicalism than the idea of patriotism, especially if we associate, as we are prone to do, patriotic sentiment with chauvinistic nationalism. But if we recall that there was a politically radical version of British patriotism, and if we realize that Shelley’s politics were just as practical as they were radical, we can start to think through just what Shelley means when he invokes patriotism, which he does in a surprising number of writings. Not only is his appeal to patriotic sentiment rhetorical, as in the "popular songs wholly political" (Letters 2: 191), it is also philosophical and poetic, as in writings as diverse as the pamphlet An Address to the People on the Death of the Princess Charlotte, the essay On Love, the unpublished Philosophical View of Reform, and the manifesto A Defence of Poetry. What emerges from these various deployments is an idea of patriotism that at once motivates the political reformer, whom Shelley calls the "true patriot" in A Philosophical View of Reform, and also occasions community, offering proof, in the language of the Princess Charlotte pamphlet, "that we love something besides ourselves" (Prose Works 232). Combining the motive to reform with the necessity of community, the references to patriotism in A Defence of Poetry suggest that patriotism in Shelley is what Edward Blyden called "the poetry of politics" (qtd. in Appiah 26).

Yet in "The Mask of Anarchy" (a poem included among his "popular songs"), Shelley addresses the "Men of England, heirs of glory, / Heroes of unwritten story" (147-148), bringing together the acknowledgement of a common past with the idea of a shared future, while "unwritten" asserts the agency of the "men of England," the "heroes," in that future. "Unwritten" also indicates their heroic though yet-to-be written role in the past "glory" of England to which the present generation is "heir." The as-yet-imagined, "unwritten" quality of the future of England aligns Shelley with the radical constitutionalism of Paine’s Rights of Man, and against the interpretation of the English constitution in Burke’s Reflections. But how does Shelley get from the assertion in The Elysian Fields that "the English nation does not, as has been imagined, inherit freedom from its ancestors" to the idea in the popular songs of 1819 that the "men of England" are not only the "heroes" of their nation’s "incessant struggles," but also that they are the "heirs of glory"? The logic of Shelleyean nonviolence is manifold, but it includes at its heart the confrontation of the soldiers with their fellow men and fellow countrymen—or perhaps more accurately with their fellow men whom they only know, by virtue of the accident of being born in one country instead of another, as their fellow countrymen. Shelley notes twice this dual citizenship, both times pointing out that the soldiers are men and Englishmen: "In the first place, the soldiers are men and Englishmen, and it is not to be believed that they would massacre an unresisting multitude of their countrymen drawn up in unarmed array before them and bearing in their looks the calm, deliberate resolution to perish rather than abandon the assertion of their rights" (257). In the next use of the phrase—"[b]ut the soldier is a man and an Englishman" (257)—such dual citizenship is what "would probably throw [the soldier] back upon a recollection of the true nature of the measures of which he was made the instrument, and the enemy might be converted into the ally" (257). The sympathetic identification of soldier and laborer is not only a going-out-of-self by each party, but an expansion of passion, benevolence, and affection that is concomitant with the soldier’s realization of his merely instrumental, and thus repressive, agency. (16)

Shelley in 1819—not to mention England in 1819—generates extraordinary legacies for artistic and critical history. Among them has been the question of what constitutes the phenomenon we call interventionist, committed, politically engaged art and criticism. A number of approaches to Shelley's 1819 have emphasized the distance between apparently activist poems “The Mask of Anarchy”, for example—and what is deemed Shelley's High Style: presumably aestheticist, representationalist poetry of the "lyric I." Some recent analysts of the grounds and processes of engagement find that the Mask and kindred poems successfully, even courageously forego canonical lyric privilege, building or gesturing towards real-world community. Others assess Shelley's interventionism as good-faith (or even bad-faith) failure; they contend that the activist poetry ultimately reveals a baleful formalism and lack of immediate practical consequence that unites it with Shelley's more evidently idealist art. Much of interest has been said on both sides and in between, but it's worth noting that, for understandable reasons, a good deal of this criticism proceeds implicitly or explicitly from Marxian-derived premises that have had great impact on nineteenth- and twentieth-century notions of "commitment."

With its quasi-conceptual and quasi-social character ("a mist, a light, an image"; "all...empty air" [Mask 2.103, 121]), the aesthetic can provide a prerequisite of critical thought by offering formal means for developing new (not even necessarily utopian) concepts. Such concepts may bring to light presently-obscured aspects of substantive social reality (aspects of society not already determined by society's own conceptual view of itself). The operative notion is that thought determined by society—by society's own concepts of itself: status-quo, reigning concepts of society—can never give a satisfactory picture of that society. This finally resolves into a fundamental strain of Adorno's aesthetics, to which Shelley contributes far more than an undersong, and that can be expressed as follows: Lyric experiment helps construct and make available the intellectual-emotional apparatus for accessing, and to that extent helps make available the social material of, "the new" ("the new" here being understood ultimately as the not-yet-grasped features of the mode of production and, in fact, of all that is emergent in the social). This constructivist theory and practice sees that experiment in lyric—lyric as experiment—helps make new areas of the modern fitfully available to perception in the first place. Constructivism by itself guarantees neither progressive subjectivity nor commitment to emancipatory politics. But this construction of perceptual or cognitive capability is prerequisite to such subjectivity, critical thought, and commitment. (17)

The scandal of Shelley’s great political ballad, "The Mask of Anarchy," is that its appeal to the power of mass resistance is written from aristocratic exile. Certainly this position does not disqualify its interventionist rhetoric: no one criticizes a Brecht for becoming an outspoken émigré in Denmark in the 1930s. The problematic issue is not the writer’s personal safety so much as the nature and expression of his commitment to those masses whose sacrifice he exhorts. The "Mask" appeals to an ultimate and utopian harmony between the masses and the oppressor’s troops, grounded in a common nationalism ("the old laws of England") and an idealized shame provoked in that nation by the willing martyrdom of passive protesters who virtually invite the army to "slash, and stab, and maim, and hew." Such an appeal to universal Promethean virtue, shared by proletarian and stormtrooper, may indeed strike us, at the very close of the twentieth century, as so naive as to warp the very real commitment of Shelley’s art. This dilemma brings to mind Adorno’s famous critique of such "commitment" by an artist like Brecht, who was trapped in the paradox of committed art in advanced capitalism: the intellectual must speak as a kind of ventriloquist, speaking for the proletarian; yet it is the powerful bourgeois he must capture, addressing oppression in the ideological terms and values of the oppressor, appealing to a spurious "harmony" of interest.

Most recently, Susan Wolfson has challenged the status of Shelley’s "Mask" as one of the great examples of English radical poetry. Is Shelley’s political poetry "no more than aesthetic processing of politics?" (195). This poem alights upon a poet dreaming "over the sea," a dream, says Wolfson, "from which he is never seen to awaken" (196). Those words of liberation spoken to the "Men of England" (line 147) arise only "As if" an allegorical Earth were speaking to her children, though the actual speaker is obscure, "the words," she points out, arising "by an inexplicable agency. . . borne by fantastic illusion. This dreamy shimmer is a tension that both sustains the poem’s idealism and exposes the ideological bind of proffering poetry as the thing to be ‘done’ in political crisis" (198). Ultimately, Wolfson sees the poem’s energizing conflict deriving from the question, "can poetry have political agency or is it ‘supererogatory’ to political action?" (195). This leads me to respond to Susan Wolfson’s question about the political role of a visionary poetry: the answer is a moving target, and it will be defined only historically within the ideological modes and even literary forms, like satire, in which particular classes express their aspirations and fears. And the political import will emerge from the real relationship of these aspirations to the actual total historical and social situation, what Lukács called "class consciousness." In the case of Shelley, the dream vision of an aristocrat may perhaps constitute a more incisive political analysis than a ballad about the rebel framebreaker, General Ludd. In fact, peculiar though it may seem, Adorno would probably see the dream vision section of Shelley’s poem as even more subversive than its working-class balladry. (Brecht, who translated this section of Shelley’s "Mask," perhaps thought so.) More subversive because it can envision the oppressed collectively seeing what the visionary sees, the unmasking of anarchy as the rule of monarchy and the death of tyrants on the bloody field of their own creation as the beginning of a new call to class solidarity and courageous resistance: "A sense awakening and yet tender. . . Had turned every drop of blood / By which [Earth’s] face had been bedewed / To an accent unwithstood" (lines 136-37). The call to the "Men of England" that follows is indeed an exhortation not spoken by any agent. It is, rather, a call "unwithstood" because, as Steven Jones has implied, it is the ineluctable voice of the historical moment and opportunity itself (112).

This invocation of popular iconology grounds his satire not in an ideal realm from which the powerful are merely lampooned but rather within the actual and bloody struggle of the oppressed both to free their understandings and to appropriate for themselves their land, labor, and nation. Shelley’s poem, as a sophisticated ballad, may scandalize in its appeal to an unlikely remedy, which exposes the work’s origin in a paralyzed and distant intellectual’s hope to lead a nationalist moral apocalypse.

As for Shelley’s moral/political hope for popular forgiveness of the tyrant and avoiding revenge in the name of nation building, we dare not, even (especially) in our century call this naive. Before a space can be cleared for forgiveness, a circle must be drawn around the murderers and the tyrants, and that clearing may not be bloodless. Shelley, even in his proleptic rush to the ideal and the hoped-for harmonies of civil life, did not overlook this. But he locates the most deadly and persisting violence with the anarchs. Our bloody twentieth century has rolled over millions like a column of tanks in an acrid night. Standing today on the very horizon of the twenty first, we must believe that it is not naive to hope that the terrible, titanic, scandalous labor of forgiveness—the only true, ideal act of civil nation-building—that this is no throwback to the last century’s idealist nationalism but rather a glimmer of light from the next one. It is our utopian anticipation. (18)

We could establish a link between Shelley’s “The Mask of Anarchy” and Tennyson’s “The Charge of the Light Brigade”. They both are written using an “old style”, full of words that had already fallen into disuse at that time. But there is a very clear difference between Shelley and Tennyson. While the first one accuses the government of the massacre in Manchester, the second one prefers to glorify the ones who were killed during a battle and do not accuse the ones who were in charge, the captains who were responsible of those deaths.

Is like in every other country. If you join up to be in the army wherever they sent you to fight, you will fight no matter where you go, no matter how dangerous it will be, you have to fight for your country until death and fight for that cause. Tennyson clearly describes the calvary and all the things that these man had to deal with and faced up in the war. He called them heroes because they died as such, giving their lives for their country and for their people.

A clear example is Irak, all the men and women that went there to fight, even if they didn´t believe that was a good idea, even if they thought that they were going to die, they went and they did their job and that is something that we should always remember, the sacrifice that they do for their country.

Although the orders and the strategies were stupid and badly developed, Tennyson reflects in his poem that even if they did everything wrong, the noble men that died in the battle have to be mentioned, remembered and honored because the were braves until the end of their days.

Another difference is that Tennyson don’t criticizes the people who were in charge of the army and responsible for the death of those men, the captains that were in charge of the battle, he centers in glorify and mention all the people who died in the battle. From his point of view this is the most important thing.

Shelley and Tennyson wrote in their poems their point of views. Both have different visions and perspectives of war but it’s true that they have some similarities that we should mention here. Both are interested in politics and they write about what they thought. Both have heard about the battles of their period, each one the battle of the time they lived in, and they didn’t doubt about writing what they thought about the war and about the countries that were involved in that wars. Each one expressing his opinion from his own political views at that time.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

- Shelley,P.B., Shelley’s poetry and prose:authoritative texts criticism, selected and edited by Donald H. Reiman and Neil Fraistat. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2002.

- Tennyson, A., Tennyson's Poetry and edited by Robert W.Hill, Jr. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1986.

- Alasdair D. F. Macrae: Percy Bysshe Shelley, selected poetry and prose. Routledge, 1991.

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