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The Revolt of Islam A Poem In Twelve Cantos
The Revolt of Islam A Poem In Twelve Cantos
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It is now almost two centuries since the poet Shelly gave the title of "The Revolt of Islam" to a long-winded and obscure poem, read by few and understood by fewer and by now, almost completely forgotten.
It was written about 1820, the year which saw the insurrection in the Morea begin, "the first year of Freedom's second dawn" as Byron called it, when the hearts of the peoples of Europe were deeply stirred by sympathy with the rising hopes of Greek patriots, when ancient classic memories and modern liberal ideas combined to awaken, among the ardent spirits of the Western nations, a keen desire to aid in the eliverance of an oppressed race, long crushed beneath the weight of Eastern despotism.
The cry of the churches and peoples of the East which had once awakened the crusading zeal of Catholic popes and monarchs, of Frank aud Norman knights and barons, again rang through Europe; but in our days there has been found only one nation chivalrous enough, or fanatical enough to respond to the call. But the attention of the civilized world, long enthralled by the death struggles of Napoleonic war, was at last free to turn to those Eastern lands which had been for centuries as a sealed book to Western curiosity and research.
The genius of Byron cast a halo of romance over the regions which owned the sway of the Ottoman crescent, and successive travellers explored and described the debateable lands which lie on the frontiers of Christendom and Islam. It was then that Shelley told his romantic tale of the loves of the Greek boy and girl Laon and Cythna, growing up in happiness and beauty in the poor hamlet among the olive and mulberry trees on a Morean hill-side and of how their joys were ended by a raid of the ruffianly Turkish soldiery, by whom Laon was cut down and left for dead, while Cythna was carried away captive.
Sold into a Turkish palace, she becomes the slave of the Sultan's pleasure and the mother of his child.
The birth of the infant excites the jealousy of the Sultanas, and by a palace intrigue Cythna and the baby are cast into a cavern amidst "the blue Symplegades," (a pair of rocks at the Bosphorus that clashed together randomly) to perish of hunger. Their lives are wonderfully preserved by an eagle who rings them food, as the ravens miraculously did to the prophet of old.
An earthquake delivers them from their subterranean prison, and Cythna arrives in Constantinople where she finds Laon, who had spent his time in learning or inventing doctrines similar to those held by Russian Nihilists. Cythna's misfortunes having already convinced her of the inherent truth of such doctrines, she and Laon start a propaganda on the lines of the Salvation Army, holding forth to the multitudes in the streets, and compelling them to come in. Such is the fire and pathos of Cythna's eloquence, that the slippered and long-skirted Turks become ready converts to the new religion of universal brotherhood and universal peace.
"The Revolt of Islam" takes place bloodlessly and jubilantly: the Turk and the Greek lie down together amicably, and the slums of Stamboul are pervaded by the pastoral innocence of the Garden of Eden.
The Sultan alone objects to the sudden initiation of the Milennium, and finds no compensation for his unaccustomed equality in contemplating the greatest happiness of the greatest number, lie has the sympathies of the mailed monarchs of Europe, who are horrified to find the principles which the Holy Alliance was busily extirpating in the West, asserting themselves in the East.
They gather their armies together, and beleaguer the newly found apostles of the Gospel of Humanity in Constantinople. Their barbarous arms assert by brute force the superiority of civilization and Christianity; and regenerated Islam is trampled down again by the triumphant priestcraft and despotism of Catholic Europe.
We forget what was the ultimate fate of Laon and Cythna, if indeed we ever read so far; but we remember that the poet, in wild rhapsodies, foretells the final triumph of their cause, and the approach of the happy day when the last King shall receive his dying shrift at the hands of the last Priest. The principle of evil which is enshrined in monarchical power and revealed religion, shall be ultimately eradicated by republican virtue and natural morality.
It was written about 1820, the year which saw the insurrection in the Morea begin, "the first year of Freedom's second dawn" as Byron called it, when the hearts of the peoples of Europe were deeply stirred by sympathy with the rising hopes of Greek patriots, when ancient classic memories and modern liberal ideas combined to awaken, among the ardent spirits of the Western nations, a keen desire to aid in the eliverance of an oppressed race, long crushed beneath the weight of Eastern despotism.
The cry of the churches and peoples of the East which had once awakened the crusading zeal of Catholic popes and monarchs, of Frank aud Norman knights and barons, again rang through Europe; but in our days there has been found only one nation chivalrous enough, or fanatical enough to respond to the call. But the attention of the civilized world, long enthralled by the death struggles of Napoleonic war, was at last free to turn to those Eastern lands which had been for centuries as a sealed book to Western curiosity and research.
The genius of Byron cast a halo of romance over the regions which owned the sway of the Ottoman crescent, and successive travellers explored and described the debateable lands which lie on the frontiers of Christendom and Islam. It was then that Shelley told his romantic tale of the loves of the Greek boy and girl Laon and Cythna, growing up in happiness and beauty in the poor hamlet among the olive and mulberry trees on a Morean hill-side and of how their joys were ended by a raid of the ruffianly Turkish soldiery, by whom Laon was cut down and left for dead, while Cythna was carried away captive.
Sold into a Turkish palace, she becomes the slave of the Sultan's pleasure and the mother of his child.
The birth of the infant excites the jealousy of the Sultanas, and by a palace intrigue Cythna and the baby are cast into a cavern amidst "the blue Symplegades," (a pair of rocks at the Bosphorus that clashed together randomly) to perish of hunger. Their lives are wonderfully preserved by an eagle who rings them food, as the ravens miraculously did to the prophet of old.
An earthquake delivers them from their subterranean prison, and Cythna arrives in Constantinople where she finds Laon, who had spent his time in learning or inventing doctrines similar to those held by Russian Nihilists. Cythna's misfortunes having already convinced her of the inherent truth of such doctrines, she and Laon start a propaganda on the lines of the Salvation Army, holding forth to the multitudes in the streets, and compelling them to come in. Such is the fire and pathos of Cythna's eloquence, that the slippered and long-skirted Turks become ready converts to the new religion of universal brotherhood and universal peace.
"The Revolt of Islam" takes place bloodlessly and jubilantly: the Turk and the Greek lie down together amicably, and the slums of Stamboul are pervaded by the pastoral innocence of the Garden of Eden.
The Sultan alone objects to the sudden initiation of the Milennium, and finds no compensation for his unaccustomed equality in contemplating the greatest happiness of the greatest number, lie has the sympathies of the mailed monarchs of Europe, who are horrified to find the principles which the Holy Alliance was busily extirpating in the West, asserting themselves in the East.
They gather their armies together, and beleaguer the newly found apostles of the Gospel of Humanity in Constantinople. Their barbarous arms assert by brute force the superiority of civilization and Christianity; and regenerated Islam is trampled down again by the triumphant priestcraft and despotism of Catholic Europe.
We forget what was the ultimate fate of Laon and Cythna, if indeed we ever read so far; but we remember that the poet, in wild rhapsodies, foretells the final triumph of their cause, and the approach of the happy day when the last King shall receive his dying shrift at the hands of the last Priest. The principle of evil which is enshrined in monarchical power and revealed religion, shall be ultimately eradicated by republican virtue and natural morality.
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