Feelings of a Republican on the Fall of Bonaparte
I hated thee, fallen tyrant! I did groanTo think that a most unambitious slave,Like thou, shouldst dance and revel on the graveOf Liberty. Thou mightst have built thy throneWhere it had stood even now: thou didst preferA frail and bloody pomp which Time has sweptIn 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 knowToo late, since thou and France are in the dust,That Virtue owns a more eternal foeThan Force or Fraud: old Custom, legal Crime,And bloody Faith the foulest birth of Time.
Words in this poem
- didst
- , the 2d pers. sing. imp. of Do.
- oblivion n.
- The act of forgetting, or the state of being forgotten; cessation of remembrance; forgetfulness. [L. oblivio, akin to oblivisci to forget: cf. OF. oblivion.]
- massacre n.
- The killing of a considerable number of human beings under circumstances of atrocity or cruelty, or contrary to the usages of civilized people; as, the massacre on St. Bartholomew's Day. [F., fr. LL. mazacrium; cf. Prov. G. metzgern, metzgen, to kill cattle, G. metzger a butcher, and LG. matsken to cut, hew, OHG. meizan to cut, Goth. máitan.]
- lust v. i.
- To list; to like. [AS. lystan. See Lust, n., and cf. List to choose.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Feelings of a Republican on the Fall of Bonaparte is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley — Volume 2, Project Gutenberg ebook #4798; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Percy Bysshe Shelley, Feelings of a Republican on the Fall of Bonaparte, in The Complete Poetical Works, Volume II (1816–1819), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #4798, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shelley-later-poems/feelings-of-a-republican-on-the-fall-of-bonaparte.html, id L16302.
Form and metre
Feelings of a Republican on the Fall of Bonaparte is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 87% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 50% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABBA-C-CDEDEFF groanA · slaveB · graveB · throneA · prefer · sweptC · massacre · creptC · lustD · knowE · dustD · foeE · crimeF · timeF
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I hated thee, fallen tyrant! I did groan | 11 | ·/˘·/˘/˘··· |
| To think that a most unambitious slave, | 10 | ·········· |
| Like thou, shouldst dance and revel on the grave | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Of Liberty. Thou mightst have built thy throne | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| Where it had stood even now: thou didst prefer | 10 | ····/···˘/ |
| A frail and bloody pomp which Time has swept | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| In fragments towards Oblivion. Massacre, | 11 | ·/˘·˘/˘˘/˘˘ |
| For this I prayed, would on thy sleep have crept, | 10 | ·········· |
| Treason and Slavery, Rapine, Fear, and Lust, | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘··· |
| And stifled thee, their minister. I know | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘·· |
| Too late, since thou and France are in the dust, | 10 | ·········· |
| That Virtue owns a more eternal foe | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| Than Force or Fraud: old Custom, legal Crime, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| And bloody Faith the foulest birth of Time. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.