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Animal Rights History Timeline » [1785-1837] Romantic Age » Percy Bysshe Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Revolt of Islam

[1817-1818] Percy Bysshe Shelly, The Revolt of Islam, [Originally entitled Laon and Cythna; or, The Revolution of the Golden City: A Vision of the Nineteenth Century and first published in 1817, although only a few copies were issued] in The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, edited by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (London, 1849; Google Books: Online Library of Free eBooks).

My brethren, we are free! the fruits are glowing
Beneath the stars, and the night-winds are flowing
O'er the ripe corn, the birds and beasts are dreaming—
Never again may blood of bird or beast
Stain with its venomous stream a human feast,
To the pure skies in accusation steaming;
Avenging poisons shall have ceased
To feed disease and fear and madness,
The dwellers of the earth and air
Shall throng around our steps in gladness,
Seeking their food or refuge there—
Our toil from thought all glorious forms shall cull,
To make this earth, our home more beautiful,
And Science, and her sister Posey,
Shall clothe in light the fields and cities of the free! (92)