Revolution 1790

I'm thinking of Wordsworth and Shelley of course on this special day in Egypt.

          OH! pleasant exercise of hope and joy!
         For mighty were the auxiliars which then stood
         Upon our side, we who were strong in love!
         Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,
         But to be young was very heaven!--Oh! times,
         In which the meagre, stale, forbidding ways
         Of custom, law, and statute, took at once
         The attraction of a country in romance!
         When Reason seemed the most to assert her rights,
         When most intent on making of herself                       10
         A prime Enchantress--to assist the work,
         Which then was going forward in her name!
         Not favoured spots alone, but the whole earth,
         The beauty wore of promise, that which sets
         (As at some moment might not be unfelt
         Among the bowers of paradise itself)
         The budding rose above the rose full blown.
         What temper at the prospect did not wake
         To happiness unthought of? The inert
         Were roused, and lively natures rapt away!  (The Prelude)


And, of course, the non-violent hymn, used by Gandhi, King and everyone:

Rise like Lions after slumber

In unvanquishable number,

Shake your chains to earth like dew

Which in sleep had fallen on you-

Ye are many — they are few" (Shelley, The Mask of Anarchy)

Shelley is distinguished by having written The Revolt of Islam, too.