Cancelled Stanza of the Mask of Anarchy

by Percy Bysshe Shelley — a poem card from Justes Mots

A haunting quatrain from The Mask of Anarchy depicting the poor as the living dead—starvelings emerging from cities like corpses from graves, described as tenants of tombs. Shelley's cancelled stanza offers a stark critique of poverty and social death. Conveys grave social commentary and the dehumanization of the oppressed.

[Published by H. Buxton Forman, “The Mask of Anarchy” (“Facsimile of
Shelley’s manuscript”), 1887.]

From the cities where from caves,
Like the dead from putrid graves,
Troops of starvelings gliding come,
Living Tenants of a tomb.…

Themes: sympathy · grief · reflection