The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (ed. Hutchinson, 1914)/Sonnet: Political Greatness
SONNET: POLITICAL GREATNESS
[Published by Mrs. Shelley, Posthumous Poems, 1824. There is a transcript, headed Sonnet to the Republic of Benevento, in the Harvard MS. book.]
Nor happiness, nor majesty, nor fame,Nor peace, nor strength, nor skill in arms or arts,Shepherd those herds whom tyranny makes tame;Verse echoes not one beating of their hearts,History is but the shadow of their shame, 5Art veils her glass, or from the pageant starts As to oblivion their blind millions fleet,Staining that Heaven with obscene imageryOf their own likeness. What are numbers knitBy force or custom? Man who man would be, 10Must rule the empire of himself; in itMust be supreme, establishing his throneOn vanquished will, quelling the anarchyOf hopes and fears, being himself alone.