Shelley Hated Tyrants Too

[MMMMMM]

Here we have one of the most liberal, sensitive, educated men of the time who was not afraid to call a spade a spade. Unlike some of today's poets (who probably protested the war in Iraq), I think Shelley's heart would have been made glad at the prospect of doing away with the blight of Saddam's tyranny.

Feelings of a Republican on the Fall of Bonaparte

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

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

[_2000Flushes]

Preach it, brother.