Shelley doesn’t renounce the hope of revolution or reform rather, he suggests that an inner revolution-a self-disciplining, whereby we are able to master our desires and better know ourselves-must take place before we are able to achieve widespread social change. While 1820 was a fairly good year for progressives, witnessing successful reform movements in Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Brazil, Shelley dedicates his poem to asking hard questions about the possibilities for achieving political change. Whatever the answer to this question, this sonnet certainly captures Shelley at a moment of political uncertainty.

Do the people of Benevento embody Shelley’s portrait of successful revolutionaries, who must exercise self-awareness and mastery of their own will before they are able to create political change? Or does Benevento illustrate the failure that awaits spontaneous and disorganized mass uprisings? Whether Shelley wrote his poem before or after the fall of the republican city is an interesting conundrum, given the poem’s questioning attitude about the possibilities of political revolution. Shelley apparently wrote “Political Greatness” with Benevento in mind, an Italian city that briefly established itself as a republic between July 1820 and the spring of 1821. Of hopes and fears, being himself alone.” What are numbers knitīy force or custom? Man who man would be, Staining that Heaven with obscene imagery History is but the shadow of their shame,Īrt veils her glass, or from the pageant startsĪs to oblivion their blind millions fleet, Verse echoes not one beating of their hearts, Shepherd those herds whom tyranny makes tame Nor peace, nor strength, nor skill in arms or arts,

Percy shelley sonnets