What is a good 12-14 line poem for a high school senior to memorize??
Sonnet: England in 1819 By Percy Bysshe Shelley An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying king,– Princes, the dregs of their dull race, who Through public scorn,–mud from a muddy spring,– Rulers who neither see, nor feel, nor know, But leech-like to their fainting country cling, Till they drop, blind in blood, without a blow,– A people starved and stabbed in the untilled field,– An army, which liberticide and prey Makes as a two-edged sword to all who wield,– Golden and sanguine laws which tempt and slay; Religion Christless, Godless–a book sealed; A Senate, Time’s worst statute unrepealed,– Are graves, from which a glorious Phantom may Burst, to illumine our tempestuous day. All Sonnets have 14 lines, and are rhythmically easy to remember. But this is a GREAT poem by a great Poet, who by the way was husband to Mary Shelley who wrote Frankenstein and lover of Lord Byron.
