The Masque of Anarchy (orThe Mask of Anarchy) is a British political poem written in1819 byPercy Bysshe Shelley following thePeterloo Massacre of that year. In his call for freedom, it is perhaps the first modern statement of the principle ofnonviolent resistance.

The poem was not published during Shelley's lifetime and did not appear in print until1832, when published byEdward Moxon in London with a preface byLeigh Hunt.^[1] Shelley had sent the manuscript in 1819 for publication inThe Examiner. Hunt withheld it from publication because he "thought that the public at large had not become sufficiently discerning to do justice to the sincerity and kind-heartedness of the spirit that walked in this flaming robe of verse". The epigraph on the cover of the first edition is from Shelley'sThe Revolt of Islam (1818): "Hope is strong; Justice and Truth their winged child have found."

The poem’s use ofmasque andmask has been discussed by Morton Paley;^[2] Shelley usedmask in the manuscript but the first edition usesmasque in the title. The poem has 372 lines, largely in four-linequatrains; two more quatrains appear in some manuscript versions.^[3]

Political authors and campaigners such asRichard Holmes andPaul Foot, among others, describe it as "the greatest political poem ever written in English".^[4][5] In his bookAn Encyclopedia of Pacifism,Aldous Huxley noted the poem's exhortation to the English to resist assault without fighting back, stating "The Method of resistance inculcated by Shelley inThe Mask of Anarchy is the method of non-violence".^[6]

Author, educator, and activistHoward Zinn refers to the poem inA People's History of the United States. In a subsequent interview, he underscored the power of the poem, suggesting: "What a remarkable affirmation of the power of people who seem to have no power. Ye are many, they are few. It has always seemed to me that poetry, music, literature, contribute very special power."^[7] In particular, Zinn uses "The Mask of Anarchy" as an example of literature that members of theAmerican labour movement would read to other workers to inform and educate them.

The rallying language of the poem had led to elements of it being used by political movements. It was recited by students at theTiananmen Square protests of 1989 and by protesters inTahrir Square during theEgyptian revolution of 2011.^[8] The phrase "like lions after slumber, in unvanquishable number" from the poem was used as a motto/slogan by theInternational Socialist Organization in their organ.^[9] The line "Ye are many-they are few" inspired the campaign slogan "We are many, they are few" used by protesters during thePoll tax riots of 1989–90 in the United Kingdom, and also inspired the title of the 2014 documentary filmWe Are Many, which focused on the global15 February 2003 anti-war protests.^[10]

Jeremy Corbyn, the former leader of theBritish Labour Party, quoted the final stanza from the poem at his rally inIslington, on the final day of campaigning for the2017 general election. Corbyn subsequently quoted the final stanza again during his speech at thePyramid stage at the 2017Glastonbury Festival.^[11] Academic and writerJohn Sutherland has suggested that the title of the party's 2017 manifesto, "For the Many, Not the few", was derived from the poem.^[12] The phrase 'a community in which power, wealth and opportunity are in the hands of the many, not the few' also appears in the revised version ofClause IV of the Labour Party Constitution.^[13]

The same variation, "For The Many, Not The Few", was the sub-title toRobert Reich's 2016 book,Saving Capitalism.^[14] A translation of the phrase, "for det mange ikke for det få", was adopted by Norway'sSocialist Left Party as its slogan in the 2020s.^[15]

The poem was also quoted on the back cover ofThe Jam's 1980 albumSound Affects.^[16][17]

EnglishWikisource has original text related to this article:

The Masque of Anarchy

• Shelley, Percy Bysshe (1832).The Mask of Anarchy. London:Edward Moxon.
• Bloy, Marjorie."The Masque of Anarchy".A Web of English History.
• The Masque of Anarchy, A Poem (mp3). Keats–Shelley Memorial Association. Archived fromthe original on 1 November 2010. Retrieved7 November 2018.
• The Masque of Anarchy public domain audiobook atLibriVox

• Civil disobedience in the United Kingdom
• Pacifism in the United Kingdom
• Nonviolence
• Poetry by Percy Bysshe Shelley
• 1819 poems
• Political history of England
• Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool
• Cultural depictions of Henry Addington
• Cultural depictions of Lord Castlereagh

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use British English from June 2017
• All Wikipedia articles written in British English
• Use dmy dates from June 2017
• Articles with LibriVox links