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SONG TO THE MEN OF ENGLAND

SONG TO THE MEN OF ENGLAND. SONG rhyming couplets, regular rhythm, repetition, alliteration = HYMN, ANTHEM or PROTEST SONG, CALL TO ARMS TO addressed to a specific group THE MEN OF ENGLAND = the labourers who make ENGLAND, ( are masters not men?). VIEWPOINT.

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SONG TO THE MEN OF ENGLAND

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  1. SONG TO THE MEN OF ENGLAND SONG rhyming couplets, regular rhythm, repetition, alliteration = HYMN, ANTHEM or PROTEST SONG, CALL TO ARMS TO addressed to a specific group THE MEN OF ENGLAND = the labourers who make ENGLAND, ( are masters not men?)

  2. VIEWPOINT System is unjust and England is tainted by the injustice Workers are dehumanised as masters suck their lifeblood Workers should rebel and work only for themselves TONE Mounting anger as poem progresses Bitterness, Rage, Contempt, Frustration

  3. STRUCTURE

  4. STRUCTURE Stanzas 1 – 4: QUESTIONS Why work for tyrants who exploit you? Stanza 5: STATEMENTS The work you do & things you make benefit only others Stanzas 6 – 8: IMPERATIVES (ORDERS) Work, but for yourselves. …… Fight back or shrivel & make your own graves.

  5. DICTION & IMAGERY WORKERS MASTERS versus

  6. DICTION & IMAGERY Workers – directly addressed Men of England Bees of England Ye

  7. DICTION & IMAGERY Masters lords who lay ye low tyrants ungrateful drones stingless drones another (5) tyrant imposter the idle

  8. DICTION & IMAGERYsemantic fieldsworkprofitrelaxationviolence & warfaredeath

  9. WORK

  10. PROFIT

  11. relaxation IV Have ye leisure, comfort, calm, Shelter, food, love’s gentle balm? Or what is it ye buy so dear With your pain and with your fear?

  12. = death or work yourself to VIOLENCE &WARFARE DEATH

  13. Bitter irony in the FINAL WORDS …till fairEngland be your sepulchre. DICTION & IMAGERY BEAUTIFUL, LIGHT JUST, HONEST, MORAL, HONOURABLE TOMB Link to use of « dear » in stanza 4

  14. DICTION & IMAGERY METAPHORS « Drain your sweat » (literal?) « nay, drink your blood » (metaphorical) « Bees of England », « ungrateful drones », « stingless drones » « buy…with your pain and with your fear »

  15. DICTION & IMAGERY « why shake the chains ye wrought? (metaphorical?)… Ye see the steel ye tempered glance on thee» (literal?) « Trace your grave and build your tomb, And weave your winding sheet, till fair England be your sepulchre » (literal or metaphorical?)

  16. GRAMMAR: Verbs • present tense • Imperatives & shift in tone: Sow, find, weave, forge (stanza 5)... shrink to your cellars, trace your grave, build your tomb, weave your winding sheet (stanzas 6 & 7)

  17. GRAMMAR: conjunctions « and » « Feed and clothe and save » (stanza 2) « With plough and spade and hoe and loom » (stanza 8) Compare to listing: « ……..leisure, comfort, calm, Shelter, food, love’s gentle balm” (stanza 4)

  18. SOUNDS • Rhyming Couplets • Meter/rhythm: 7 or 8 syllables per line, changing pattern of stress (stressed/unstressed pattern changes) • Alliteration and Assonance • Repetition • Harsh short sounds • Long vowel sounds • Enjambment • End stopped lines • Caesura SONG: Hymn praising workersof England? Anthem of class struggle? EMOTIONS: Regular rhythms and patterns = Rousing & Persuasive = workers joined together against common enemy Stirring up anger and resentment Breaks in rhythm and patterns = Agitation increases Tone increasingly angry, sarcastic and bitter = RISE UP AND FIGHT or DIE? EFFECTS

  19. PERSONAL RESPONSE Does Shelley’s message still apply? Does the poem make you think or feel differently towards issues such as the exploitation of workers and inequality in society? How do you think workers in 1819 would have responded to Shelley’s rallying cry?

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