AN ANTHOLOGY OF POLITICAL POEMS THAT USE THE ELEMENT OF METAPHOR

I intend to present an anthology of political poems in which the various authors use

the poetic element of metaphor to explain the themes. The poems in this collection

have a relatively common theme. The poems offer patriotic commentary from the

protagonist's perspective on disfunctional governments or political entities or

realities. I will discuss this central theme as it relates to each of the poems and

then elaborate on how the use of metaphor helps to explain the themes in the various

poems.

The poems that are included in this anthology include: "England in 1819" by Percy

Bysshe Shelley; "London" by William Blake; "London, 1802" by William

Wordsworth; "Dirge (the glories of our blood and state)" by James Shirley; "Here

Dead Lie We Because We Did Not Choose" by A.E. Houseman; "Chicago" by Carl Sandburg,

and "The Rights of Woman" by Anna Laetitia Barbauld.

The poem "England in 1819" appears to relate the author's detest of the British

royal family, army and Senate of his time. This sentiment can be seen from the

following excerpt from the poem:

An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying king
Princes, the dregs of their dull race, who flow
Through public scorn-mud from a muddy spring;
Rulers who neither see, nor feel, nor know,
But leechlike to their fainting country cling,
Till they drop, blind in blood, without a blow. 1.

The use of metaphor is evident when the author alludes to the eventual emergence of

liberty from the desperate situation the country is in. This can be seen from the

following excerpt:

Golden and sanguine laws which tempt and slay;
Religion Christless, Godless-a book sealed;
A Senate --Time's worst statute unrepealed--
Are graves, from which a glorious Phantom may
Burst, to illumine our tempestuous day. 1.

"London" by William Blake describes the appalling condition of the city of London in

the 16th century. It describes a cycle of devastation, pollution, political crises,

health issues including those stemming from promiscuity. An excerpt explains this:

How the Chimney-sweeper's cry
Every blackning Church appalls;
And the hapless Soldier's sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls. 1.

The metaphor used in this poem points at the moral decay and infidelity that feeds a

cycle of the spread of disease through promiscuity. This use of metaphor can be seen

in lines 13-16:

But most thro' midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlot's curse
Blasts the new-born Infant's tear,
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse. 1.

"London, 1802" continues this theme with the author yearning for a "savior," the

protagonist named "Milton" to come and save England from degeneracy. The author

describes his sentiments in the following excerpt from the poem:

Oh! raise us up, return to us again;
And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power. 1.

Milton is addressed wih the use of metaphor in the poem. He is chided for pursueing what the author relates as unimportant pursuits. The use of metaphor can be seen in the poem:

So didst thou travel on life's common way,
In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart
The lowliest duties on herself did lay. 1.

I believe that the poem "Dirge" (the glories of our blood and state)," is a poem

that deals with the vanity of the pursuit of stately glory or royal glory. It

admonishes that only good deeds endure. An excerpt from the poem can illustrate this:

The glories of our blood and state
Are shadows, not substantial things;
There is no armor against fate;
Death lays his icy hand on kings.
Scepter and crown
Must tumble down
And in the dust be equal made
With the poor crooked scythe and spade. 1.

Metaphor is used to illustrate the author's point in the following excerpt:

Your heads must come
To the cold tomb:
Only the actions of the just
Smell sweet and blossom in their dust. 1.

"Here Dead Lie We Because We Did Not Choose" is a poem that can have dual but

equally significant meanings. It appears to be a poem about patriotic young men who

have given their lives for their country. Or it can be understood as a poem about

patriotic young men who refused to surrender to serve a currupt government and were

slain for their non-complacancy. An excerpt from the poem can explain this:

Here dead lie we because we did not choose
To live and shame the land from which we sprung. 1.

The importance of the protagonist's sacrifice is explained in the following use of

metaphor in the poem:

Life, to be sure, is nothing much to lose;
But young men think it is, and we were young. 1.

"Chicago" is a poem in which the protagonist offers a patriotic depiction of the

socio-political problems of the city of Chicago in his era, with a rebuttal to

detractors. An excerpt will show this:

And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the faces of
women and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger
And having answered so I turn once more to those who sneer at this
my city, and I give them back the sneer and say to them:
Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to
be alive and coarse and strong and cunning. 1.

Metaphor is used here to explain the protagonist's patriotism towards the city:

Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.
Flinging magnetic cursed amid the toil of piling job on job, here is a
tall bold slugger set vivid against the little soft citeis;
Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunninig as a savage
pitted against the wilderness... 1.

"The Rights of Woman" is a political poem that speaks of female empowerment. It

encourages women to rise up and take the mantle of power and speaks negatively of

the status quo.From the poem:

Yes, injured Woman! rise, assert thy right!
Woman! too long degraded, scorned, oppressed;
O born to rule in parial Law despite,
Resume thy native empire o'er the breast! 1.

Metaphor is used by the author as she admonishes women to take the mantle of power:

Go forth arrayed in panoply divine;
That angel pureness which admits no stain;
Go, bid proud Man his boasted rule resign,
And kiss the golden scepter of thy reign. 1.

The poem "England! Awake! Awake! Awake!" appears to admonish the British to pay

attention to the plight of the Jewish population. An exerpt from the poem explains:

England! awake! awake! awake!
Jerusalem thy Sister calls!
Why wilt thou sleep the sleep of death?
And close her from thy ancient walls. 1.

When apparently describing the relationship of the Jewish people to England the

author uses the following metaphor in lines 4-7:

Thy hills & valleys felt her feet
Gently upon their bosoms move:
Thy gates beheld sweet Zion's ways;
Then was a time of joy and love. 1.

The following is a collection of the poems in the anthology:


1. "England in 1819" by Percy Bysshe Shelley

An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying king
Princes, the dregs of their dull race, who flow
Through public scorn-mud from a muddy spring;
Rulers who neither see, nor feel, nor know,
But leechlike to their fainting country cling,
Till they drop, blind in blood, without a blow;
A people starved and stabbed in the untilled field-
An army, which liberticide and prey
Makes as a two-edged sword to all who wield;
Golden and sanguine laws which tempt and slay;
Religion Christless, Godless-a book sealed;
A Senate-Time's worst statute unrepealed-
Are graves, from which a glorious Phantom may
Burst, to illumine our tempestuous day.

2. "London" by William Blake.

I wander thro' each charter'd street,
Near where the charter'd Thames does flow,
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.
In every cry of every man,
In every infant's cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forg'd manacles I hear.

How the Chimney-sweeper's cry
Every blackning Church appalls;
And the hapless Soldier's sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls.

But most thro' midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlot's curse
Blasts the new-born Infant's tear,
And blights with plagues th Marriage hearse.

3. "London, 1802" by Percy Blysshe Shelley.
Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour:
England hath need of thee: she is a fen
Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,
Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,
Have forfieted thier ancient English dower
Of inward happiness. We are selfish men;
Oh! raise us up, return to us again;
And give us manners, virtue. freedom, power.
Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart;
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea:
Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,
So didst thou travel on life's common way,
In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart
The lowliest duties on herself did lay.

4. "Dirge (the glories of our blood and state) by James Shirley.

The glories of our blood and state
Are shadows, not substantial things;
There is no armor against fate;
Death lays his icy hand on kings.
Scepter and crown
Must tumble down
And in the dust be equal made
With the poor crooked scythe and spade.

Some men with swords may reap the field
And plant fresh laurels where they kill,
But their strong nerves at last must yield;
They tame but one another still.
Early or late
They stoop to fate
And must give up their murmuring breath,
When they, pale captives, creep to death.
The garlands wither on your brow,
Then boast no more your mighty deeds;
upon death's purple altar now
See where the victor-victim bleeds.
Your geads must come
To the cold tomb;
Only the actions of the just
Smell sweet and blossom in their dust.

5. "Here Dead Lie We Because We Did Not Choose" by A.E. Houseman.

Here dead lie we because we did not choose
To live and shame te land from which we sprung.
Life, to be sure, is nothing much to lose;
But young men think it is, and we were young.

6. "Chicago" by Carl Sandburg.

Hog Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat'
Playeer with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulder.

They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your
painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys.
And they tell me you are crooked and I answer; Yes, it is true I have seen the gunman and go free to kill again.
And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the faces of
women and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger.
And having answered so I turn once more to theose who sneer at this
my city, and i give them back the sneer and say to them:
Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be
alive and coarse and strong and cunning.
Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on job, here is a
tall bold slugger set vivid against the little soft cities;
Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning as a savage
pitted against the wilderness,
Bareheaded,
Shoveling,
Wrecking,
Planning,
Building, breaking, rebuilding,
Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with white
teeth,
Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young man
laughs,
Lauhging even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has never lost a
battle,
Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse, and under
his ribs the heart of the people,
Laughing!
Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of Youth, half naked,
sweating, proud to be Hog Butcher, Tool maker, Stacker of
Wheat, Player with Railroes and Freight Handler to the Nation.

7. "The Rights of Woman" by Anna Laetitia Barbauld.

Yes, injured Woman! rise, assert thy right!
Woman! too long degraded, scorned, oppressed;
O born to rule in partial Law's despite,
Resume thy native empire o'er the breast!

Go forth arrayed in panoply divine;
That angel pureness which admits no stain;
Go, bid proud Man his boasted rule resign,
And kiss the golden scepter of thy reign.

Go, gird thyself with grace; collect thy store
Of bright arillery glancing from afar;
Soft melting tones thy thundering cannon's roar,
Blushes and fears thy magazine of war.

Thy rights are empire: urge no meaner claim,-
Felt, not defined, and if debated, lost;
Like sacred mysteries, which withheld from fame,
Shunning discussion, are revered the most.

Try all that wit and art suggest to bend
Of thy imperial foe the stubborn knee;
Make treacherous Man thy subject, not thy friend;
Thou mayst command, but never canst be free.

Awe the licentious, and restrain the rude;
Soften the sullen, clear the cloudy brow:
Be, more than princes' gifts, thy favors sued;
She hazards all, who will the least allow.
But hope not, courted idol of mankind,
On this proud eminince secure to stay;
Subduing and subdued, thou soon shalt find
Thy coldness soften, and thy pride give way.
Then, then, abandon each ambitious thought,
Conquest or rule thy heart shall feebly move,
In Nature's school, by her soft maxims taught,
That separate rights are lost in mutual love.

8. "England! Awake! Awake! Awake!" by William Blake.

England! awake! awake! awake!
Jerusalem thy Sister calls!
Why wilt thous sleep the sleep of feath?
And close her from thy ancient walls.


Thy hills & valleys felt her feet
Gently upon their bosoms move:
Thy gates beheld sweet Zion's ways;
Then was a time of joy and love.


And now the time returns again:
Our souls exult & London's towers,
Recieve the Lamb of God to dwell
In England's green & pleasant bowers.

Works Cited:

1. Percy Bysshe Shelley. "England in 1819". Ferguson, Salter and Stallworthy 871-872.

Ferguson, Margaret, Mary Jo Salter and Jon Stallworthy, The Norton Anthology of Poetry. New York: Norton, 2005.

William Blake. "London." Ferguson, Salter and Stallworthy 744-745.

William Wordsworth. "London, 1802." Ferguson, Salter and Stallworthy 795.

James Shirley. "Dirge(the glories of our blood and state)." Ferguson, Salter and Stallworthy 390-391.

A.E. Houseman. "Here Dead Lie We Because We Did Not Choose." Ferguson, Salter and Stallworthy 1180.

Carl Sandburg. "Chicago." Ferguson, Salter and Stallworthy 1252-1253.

Ann Laetitia Barbauld. "The Rights of Woman." Ferguson, Salter and Stallworthy 705-706.

William Blake. "England! Awake! Awake! Awake!." Ferguson, Salter and Stallworthy 747.