Fragment: To the People of England
People of England, ye who toil and groan,Who reap the harvests which are not your own,Who weave the clothes which your oppressors wear,And for your own take the inclement air;Who build warm houses...And are like gods who give them all they have,And nurse them from the cradle to the grave...
(Perhaps connected with that immediately preceding (Forman).--ED.)
What men gain fairly--that they should possess,And children may inherit idleness,From him who earns it--This is understood;Private injustice may be general good.But he who gains by base and armed wrong,Or guilty fraud, or base compliances,May be despoiled; even as a stolen dressIs stripped from a convicted thief; and heLeft in the nakedness of infamy.
Words in this poem
- reap n.
- A bundle of grain; a handful of grain laid down by the reaper as it is cut. Wright. [Cf. AS. rip harvest. See Reap, v.]
- inclement a.
- Not clement; destitute of a mild and kind temper; void of tenderness; unmerciful; severe; harsh. [L. inclemens; pref. in- not + clemens mild: cf. F. inclément. See Clement.]
- nakedness n.
- The condition of being naked.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Fragment: To the People of England 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, Fragment: To the People of England, in The Complete Poetical Works, Volume II (1816–1819), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #4798, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shelley-later-poems/fragment-to-the-people-of-england.html, id L16351.
Form and metre
Fragment: To the People of England is 17 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 78%). 88% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% 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 AABB-CC groanA · ownA · wearB · airB · houses · haveC · graveC
- 3 AABB--A-- possessA · idlenessA · understoodB · goodB · wrong · compliances · dressA · he · infamy
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 |
|---|---|---|
| People of England, ye who toil and groan, | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| Who reap the harvests which are not your own, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Who weave the clothes which your oppressors wear, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| And for your own take the inclement air; | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Who build warm houses... | 5 | ···/˘ |
| And are like gods who give them all they have, | 10 | ·········· |
| And nurse them from the cradle to the grave... | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| (Perhaps connected with that immediately preceding (Forman).--ED.) | 16 | ˘/˘/˘··˘/˘˘/˘/·· |
| What men gain fairly--that they should possess, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| And children may inherit idleness, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘/˘˘ |
| From him who earns it--This is understood; | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Private injustice may be general good. | 10 | /˘˘/˘··/˘· |
| But he who gains by base and armed wrong, | 10 | ········˘· |
| Or guilty fraud, or base compliances, | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘˘ |
| May be despoiled; even as a stolen dress | 10 | ····/··/˘· |
| Is stripped from a convicted thief; and he | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Left in the nakedness of infamy. | 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.