Song to the Men of England - Percy Bysshe Shelley
A Rousing Call for Workers’ Dignity and Action
Men of England, wherefore plough
For the lords who lay ye low?
Wherefore weave with toil and care
The rich robes your tyrants wear?
Wherefore feed, and clothe, and save,
From the cradle to the grave,
Those ungrateful drones who would
Drain your sweat—nay, drink your blood?
Wherefore, Bees of England, forge
Many a weapon, chain, and scourge,
That these stingless drones may spoil
The forced produce of your toil?
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?
The seed ye sow, another reaps;
The wealth ye find, another keeps;
The robes ye weave, another wears;
The arms ye forge, another bears.
Sow seed—but let no tyrant reap;
Find wealth—let no impostor heap;
Weave robes—let not the idle wear;
Forge arms—in your defence to bear.
Shrink to your cellars, holes, and cells—
In hall ye deck another dwells.
Why shake the chains ye wrought? Ye see
The steel ye tempered glance on ye.
With plough and spade and hoe and loom,
Trace your grave, and build your tomb,
And weave your winding-sheet, till fair
England be your sepulchre!
Composed around 1819 and published in 1839 (posthumously, in some collections), “Song to the Men of England” is Percy Bysshe Shelley’s impassioned address to the laboring classes of his country. By posing rhetorical questions—“Men of England, wherefore plough / For the lords who lay ye low?”—the poet spotlights the stark injustice that workers create wealth and comforts yet remain impoverished themselves. Shelley’s references to forging arms and weaving robes amplify the irony: the very tools, luxuries, and power that oppressors wield against the people originate from the workers’ own toils.
In a bold, direct style, Shelley likens the working classes to “Bees of England,” busy and industrious, while the unproductive “drones” (the lords and owners) exploit their labor. Urging workers to consider the futility of contributing to a system that neglects their welfare, Shelley shifts from lament to a call for self-defense, self-ownership, and, implicitly, revolt.
These themes reflect Shelley’s broader radical idealism and sympathy for social and political reform. He wrote at a time of rampant inequality in post-Napoleonic Britain, amidst fears of revolutionary sentiment fomenting across Europe. While Shelley stops short of prescribing outright violence, he forcefully calls for workers to withhold their labor from those who abuse them, to produce for their own benefit, and to refuse subjugation.
“Song to the Men of England” stands as one of the strongest statements of Shelley’s egalitarian convictions—an enduring call for working-class dignity. Its powerful final lines exhort the laborers not to dig their own graves or weave their own winding-sheet by complying with oppression. The piece reverberates in modern discussions of economic justice, reminding us that the cycle of exploitation persists wherever labor is undervalued and rights are withheld from the many.
Key points
• Addresses the systemic exploitation of workers who generate wealth for idle elites.
• Uses strong imagery (bees vs. drones) to highlight the moral and economic imbalance.
• Encourages self-emancipation by questioning why laborers should serve those who exploit them.
• Reflects Shelley’s radical politics and the era’s burgeoning call for reform.
• Remains a resonant anthem for labor rights and social justice movements.