Sonnet: England in 1819

1An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying king, —

2Princes, the dregs of their dull race, who flow

3Through public scorn, — mud from a muddy spring, —

4Rulers who neither see, nor feel, nor know,

5But leech-like to their fainting country cling,

6Till they drop, blind in blood, without a blow, —

7A people starved and stabbed in the untilled field, —

8An army, which liberticide and prey

9Makes as a two-edged sword to all who wield, —

10Golden and sanguine laws which tempt and slay;

11Religion Christless, Godless — a book sealed;

12A Senate, — Time's worst statute, unrepealed, —

13Are graves from which a glorious Phantom may

14Burst, to illumine our tempestuous day.