For those of you who'd like to read the rest of the Percy Bysshe Shelley essay I quoted from in this post, you can find the version I have here. A (full?) version of the essay can also be found here; the quote I used is on page 10 of that document, and page 70 of the .pdf.
More like this
and so this tree
Oh, that such our death may be!
Died in sleep, and felt no pain,
To live in happier form again:
From which, beneath Heaven s fairest star,
The artist wrought this loved guitar;
- Percy Bysshe Shelley
Most of us think of Percy Bysshe Shelley as a romantic poet concerned with love and beauty. He was, of course. But he was also a fierce fighter for liberty and foe of unbridled political power.
His target in this sonnet was King George:
Ozymandias
Angels of rain and lightning! there are spread
On the blue surface of thine airy surge,
Like the bright hair uplifted from the head