Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, LIBERTY, by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY



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LIBERTY, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: The fiery mountains answer each other
Last Line: In the van of the morning light.
Subject(s): Freedom; Liberty


I

THE fiery mountains answer each other,
Their thunderings are echoed from zone to zone;
The tempestuous oceans awake one another,
And the ice-rocks are shaken round Winter's throne,
When the clarion of the Typhoon is blown.

II

From a single cloud the lightning flashes,
Whilst a thousand isles are illumined around;
Earthquake is trampling one city to ashes,
An hundred are shuddering and tottering; the sound
Is bellowing underground.

III

But keener thy gaze than the lightning's glare,
And swifter thy step than the earthquake's tramp;
Thou deafenest the rage of the ocean; thy stare
Makes blind the volcanoes; the sun's bright lamp
To thine is a fen-fire damp.

IV

From billow and mountain and exhalation
The sunlight is darted through vapor and blast;
From spirit to spirit, from nation to nation,
From city to hamlet, thy dawning is cast, --
And tyrants and slaves are like shadows of night
In the van of the morning light.





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