This poem,
Political Greatness was written by
Shelly in 1821 and published in 1824. While we are worried about
correctness, the sometimes
despondent
poet was concerned with something greater. This poem, perhaps more than some of his others, survives a classic test of time in its
universality and appropriateness, today.
POLITICAL GREATNESS
Nor happiness, nor majesty, nor fame,
Nor peace, nor strength, nor skill in arms or
arts,
Shepherd those herds whom tyranny makes
tame;
Verse echoes not one beating of their hearts,
History is but the shadow of their shame,
Art veils her glass, or from the pageant starts
As to oblivion their blind millions fleet,
Staining that Heaven with obscene imagery
Of their own likeness. What are numbers
knit
By force or custom? Man who man would
be,
Must rule the empire of himself; in it
Must be supreme, establishing his throne
On vanquished will, quelling the anarchy
Of hopes and fears, being himself alone.
---Percy Bysshe Shelley