Percy Shelley's The Revolt of Islam - a fragment (on religion)

Canto X

xxviii

“O King of Glory! thou alone hast power!
Who can resist thy will? who can restrain
Thy wrath, when on the guilty thou dost shower
The shafts of thy revenge, a blistering rain?
Greatest and best, be merciful again
Have we not stabbed thine enemies, and made
The Earth an altar, and the Heavens a fane,
Where thou wert worshipped with their blood, and laid
Those hearts in dust which would thy searchless works have weighed?

xxix

“Well didst thou loosen on this impious City

Thine angels of revenge : recall them now ;

Thy worshippers abased, here kneel for pity,

And bind their souls by an immortal vow:

We swear by thee! and to our oath do thou

Give sanction, from thine hell of fiends and flame,

That we will kill with fire and torments slow,

The last of those who mocked thy holy name,

And scorned the sacred laws thy prophets did proclaim.”

xxx

Thus they with trembling limbs and pallid lips

Worshipped their own hearts’ image, dim and vast,

Scared by the shade wherewith they would eclipse

The light of other minds;–troubled they past

From the great Temple;—fiercely still and fast

The arrows of the plague among them fell,

And they on one another gazed aghast,

And thro’ the hosts contention wild befell,

As each of his own god the wondrous works did tell.

xxxi

And Oromaze, Joshua, and Mahomet,

Moses, and Buddh, Zerdusht, and Brahm, and Foh,

A tumult of strange names, which never met

Before, as watchwords of a single woe,

Arose; each raging votary 'gan to throw

Aloft his armed hands, and each did howl

“Our God alone is God!” and slaughter now

Would have gone forth, when from beneath a cowl

A voice came forth, which pierced like ice thro’ every soul.

xxxii

'Twas an Iberian Priest from whom it came,

A zealous man, who led the legioned west

With words which faith and pride had steeped in flame,

To quell the unbelievers; a dire guest

Even to his friends was he, for in his breast

Did hate and guile lie watchful, intertwined,

Twin serpents in one deep and winding nest;

He loathed all faith beside his own, and pined

To wreak his fear of Heaven in vengeance on mankind.

xxxiii

But more he loathed and hated the clear light

Of wisdom and free thought, and more did fear,

Lest, kindled once, its beams might pierce the night,

Even where his Idol stood; for, far and near

Did many a heart in Europe leap to hear

That faith and tyranny were trampled down;

Many a pale victim, doomed for truth to share

The murderer's cell, or see, with helpless groan,

The priests his children drag for slaves to serve their own.

xxxiv

He dared not kill the infidels with fire

Or steel, in Europe: the slow agonies

Of legal torture mocked his keen desire:

So he made truce with those who did despise

The expiation, and the sacrifice,

That, though detested, Islam's kindred creed

Might crush for him those deadlier enemies;

For fear of God did in his bosom breed

A jealous hate of man, an unreposing need.