Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, AN ODE WRITTEN BEFORE THE SPANIARDS HAD RECOVERED LIBERTY, by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

AN ODE WRITTEN BEFORE THE SPANIARDS HAD RECOVERED LIBERTY, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Arise, arise, arise / there is blood on the earth that denies ye bread
Last Line: Ye were injured, and that means memory.
Variant Title(s): An Ode To The Assertors Of Liberty
Subject(s): Freedom; Spain - History; Liberty


ARISE, arise, arise!
There is blood on the earth that denies ye bread!
Be your wounds like eyes
To weep for the dead, the dead, the dead.
What other grief were it just to pay?
Your sons, your wives, your brethren, were they!
Who said they were slain on the battleday?

Awaken, awaken, awaken!
The slave and the tyrant are twin-born foes.
Be the cold chains shaken
To the dust where your kindred repose, repose.
Their bones in the grave will start and move
When they hear the voices of those they love
Most loud in the holy combat above.

Wave, wave high the banner,
When Freedom is riding to conquest by!
Though the slaves that fan her
Be Famine and Toil, giving sigh for sigh.
And ye who attend her imperial car,
Lift not your hands in the banded war
But in her defence whose children ye are.

Glory, glory, glory,
To those who have greatly suffered and done!
Never name in story
Was greater than that which ye shall have won.
Conquerors have conquered their foes alone
Whose revenge, pride, and power, they have overthrown.
Ride ye, more victorious, over your own.

Bind, bind every brow
With crownals of violet, ivy, and pine!
Hide the blood-stains now
With hues which sweet nature has made divine --
Green strength, azure hope, and eternity;
But let not the pansy among them be --
Ye were injured, and that means memory.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net