Nor yet exempt, though ruling them like slaves, From chance, and death, and mutability, The clogs of that which else might oversoar The loftiest star of unascended heaven, Pinnacled dim in the intense inane.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Even rulers are subject to chance and death limiting their power regardless of status.
- In plain terms
- Even rulers face death and change like everyone else.
- What can you take from it?
- No one escapes chance and death regardless of power.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Does power protect us from death?
- How does mortality affect how we rule?
Another view
The quote focuses on limits rather than agency which may underestimate human impact.
More from Percy Bysshe Shelley
Death is the veil which those who live call life; They sleep, and it is lifted.
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Permalink to quote #78 All love is sweet, Given or returned. Common as light is love, And its familiar voice wearies not ever. Like the wide heaven, the all-sustaining air, It makes …
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