Copy Book Archive

The Empire Within Poet Percy Bysshe Shelley says that the pinnacle of political achievement is the government not of others, but of ourselves.
1820-1821
Music: John Baptist Cramer

By Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain Source

About this picture …

Pulled one way and another... ‘David Garrick between Tragedy and Comedy’ by Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) shows the great actor in a tug-of-war between two very demanding and jealous mistresses, and is a homage to the tale of Heracles at the Crossroads. Judging by the apologetic expression on Garrick’s face, in Sir Joshua’s opinion Comedy was winning.

The Empire Within
Percy Shelley’s sonnet ‘Political Greatness’ was published after his death by his widow, Mary. Shelley rejected any theory of social order based on coercion, whether by explicit legislation or by the tyranny of unbreakable custom. Humanity will never be served by mastering others; it is mastering yourself that is the true humanism.

‘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.*

Edmund Burke would have agreed: see There is No Liberty without Self-Control.

Précis

Shelley’s sonnet decries tyrannical government, for so taming the masses that they can no longer really feel the power of great emotions or Art. True social order, he says, comes not through external controls by law or custom but through individual men and women conquering their own internal realm of mind and heart. (53 / 60 words)

Source

From ‘The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley’.

Suggested Music

Piano Concerto No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 70

2: Larghetto

John Baptist Cramer (1771-1858)

Performed by Howard Shelley with the London Mozart Players.

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How To Use This Passage

You can use this passage to help improve your command of English.

IRead it aloud, twice or more. IISummarise it in one sentence of up to 30 words. IIISummarise it in one paragraph of 40-80 words. IVMake notes on the passage, and reconstruct the original from them later on. VJot down any unfamiliar words, and make your own sentences with them later. VIMake a note of any words that surprise or impress you, and ask yourself what meaning they add to the words you would have expected to see. VIITurn any old-fashioned English into modern English. VIIITurn prose into verse, and verse into prose. IXAsk yourself what the author is trying to get you to feel or think. XHow would an artist or a photographer capture the scene? XIHow would a movie director shoot it, or a composer write incidental music for it?

For these and more ideas, see How to Use The Copy Book.

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