The Mask of Anarchy, Percy Shelly

Question 1

Empty air

Answer 1

With steps as soft as wind it passed
O’ er the heads of men – so fast
That the knew the presence there
And looked, – but all was empty air

As flowers beneath May’s footstep waken,
As stars from Night’s loose hair are shaken,
As waves arise when loud winds call,
Thoughts sprung where’er that step did fall

Question 2

Dew

Answer 2

Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number,
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you --
Ye are many -- they are few.

What is Freedom? – ye can tell
That which slavery is, too well –
For its very name has grown
To an echo of your own.

Question 3

Prison Halls (1)

Answer 3

Lastly from the palaces
Where the murmur of distress
Echoes, like the distant sound
Of a wind alive around

Those prison halls of wealth and fashion,
Where some few feel such compassion
For those who groan, and toil, and wail
As must make their brethren pale–

Ye who suffer woes untold,
Or to feel, or to behold
Your lost country bought and sold
With a price of blood and gold–

Question 4

assembly (2)

Answer 4

Let a vast assembly be,
And with great solemnity
Declare with measured words that ye
Are, as God has made ye, free–

Be your strong and simple words
Keen to wound as sharpened swords,
And wide as targes let them be,
With their shade to cover ye.

Question 5

emblazonry (3)

Answer 5

`Let the tyrants pour around
With a quick and startling sound,
Like the loosening of a sea,
Troops of armed emblazonry

`Let the charged artillery drive
Till the dead air seems alive
With the clash of clanging wheels,
And the tramp of horses’ heels.

Question 6

First Violate (1)a

Answer 6

On those who first should violate
Such sacred heralds in their state
Rest the blood that must ensue,
And it will not rest on you.

And if then the tyrants dare
Let them ride among you there,
Slash, and stab, and maim, and hew,–
What they like, that let them do.

Question 7

Tyrants shame (2)a

Answer 7

With folded arms and steady eyes,
And little fear, and less surprise,
Look upon them as they slay
Till their rage has died away.

Then they will return with shame
To the place from which they came,
And the blood thus shed will speak
In hot blushes on their cheek.

Question 8

every woman (3)a

Answer 8

Every woman in the land
Will point at them as they stand–
They will hardly dare to greet
Their acquaintance in the street.

And the bold, true warriors
Who have hugged Danger in wars
Will turn to those who would be free,
Ashamed of such base company.

Question 9

Slaughter to the nation (4)a

Answer 9

And that slaughter to the Nation
Shall steam up like inspiration,
Eloquent, oracular;
A volcano heard afar.

`And these words shall then become
Like Oppression’s thundered doom
Ringing through each heart and brain,
Heard again – again – again–

Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number--
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you--
Ye are many -- they are few.'