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The Annotated Edition

CANCELLED STANZA OF THE MASK OF ANARCHY. by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Summary, meaning, line-by-line analysis & FAQ.

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This is a brief, cancelled stanza from Shelley's longer protest poem *The Mask of Anarchy*, created in reaction to the 1819 Peterloo Massacre.

Poet
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Meter
trochaic tetrameter
Rhyme
AABB
Themes
despair, freedom, justice
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The PoemFull text

CANCELLED STANZA OF THE MASK OF ANARCHY.

Percy Bysshe Shelley

[Published by H. Buxton Forman, “The Mask of Anarchy” (“Facsimile of Shelley’s manuscript”), 1887.] (FOR WHICH STANZAS 68, 69 HAVE BEEN SUBSTITUTED.) From the cities where from caves, Like the dead from putrid graves, Troops of starvelings gliding come, Living Tenants of a tomb. ***

Public domain

Sourced from Project Gutenberg

§01Quick summary

What this poem is about

This is a brief, cancelled stanza from Shelley's longer protest poem *The Mask of Anarchy*, created in reaction to the 1819 Peterloo Massacre. It depicts starving workers pouring out of industrial cities like corpses emerging from decaying graves. Shelley removed it and substituted it with two other stanzas, but the image remained in manuscript form until it was published in 1887.

§02Themes

Recurring themes

§03Line by line

Stanza by stanza, with notes

  1. From the cities where from caves, / Like the dead from putrid graves,

    Editor's note

    Shelley begins with a twofold action: people spill out of cities, which she describes as caves—dark, underground, and lifeless. The comparison deepens as she likens the workers to corpses emerging from decaying graves. The word "putrid" carries significant weight; it suggests not only death but also decay and neglect, highlighting a slow rot that society has permitted to occur.

  2. Troops of starvelings gliding come, / Living Tenants of a tomb.

    Editor's note

    "Starvelings" is a harsh, unpleasant term for people ravaged by hunger, and Shelley chooses it intentionally — no sugarcoating, no euphemisms. "Gliding" feels unsettling; it takes away the workers' usual energy of walking, making them appear ghostly. The final line unifies the entire image: these individuals are alive, yet their living conditions resemble those of a tomb. They are the living dead, haunting the cities that have devoured them.

§04Tone & mood

How this poem feels

The tone is dark and confrontational. Shelley isn’t quietly mourning — he’s compelling the reader to confront something grotesque. The imagery is intentionally repulsive (putrid graves, starvelings, tombs) because Shelley seeks to evoke disgust, not pity. Beneath the gothic exterior lies a cold, measured rage.

§05Symbols & metaphors

Symbols & metaphors

Caves / Graves
The industrial cities are depicted as caves—dark, primitive, underground. When combined with "graves," they blur the line between a workspace and a burial site. The workers never truly escaped the earth; they simply transitioned from one form of entrapment to another.
Starvelings gliding
The ethereal, effortless motion of "gliding" transforms the workers into mere shadows. It takes away their physical presence and energy, illustrating how industrial poverty has diminished people to almost ghostly lives.
Living Tenants of a tomb
The oxymoron of living people as tenants of a tomb is the most striking aspect of this stanza. A tenant pays rent and occupies a space by agreement — Shelley suggests that the workers are trapped in their death-like conditions not by chance, but by a social and economic system that benefits from keeping them there.

§06Form & structure

Form & structure

Meter
trochaic tetrameter
Rhyme
AABB

§07Historical context

Historical context

Shelley wrote *The Mask of Anarchy* in Italy during the weeks following the Peterloo Massacre in August 1819, when cavalry charged into a crowd of about 60,000 people in Manchester who were demanding parliamentary reform. This brutal attack resulted in at least 15 deaths and hundreds of injuries. The poem was a direct political response aimed at the working people of England. One stanza was drafted but ultimately cancelled, replaced by stanzas 68 and 69 in the final version. It wasn’t published until 1887 when H. Buxton Forman released a facsimile edition of Shelley's manuscript. This stanza is part of the poem that depicts the suffering masses rising up, and its gothic imagery of graves and tombs showcases Shelley's anger at the industrial and agrarian poverty faced by people in Regency England.

§08FAQ

Questions readers ask

We can't say for sure, but most people think the two replacement stanzas (68 and 69) are more impactful and fit better with the poem's growing intensity. The imagery in this stanza, though powerful, might come across as too still — more like a snapshot of suffering instead of an urgent call to action.

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Themes in this poem

Poems about despairPoems about freedomPoems about justicePoems about sorrow