Shelley wrote this attack during the brutal political crackdowns of 1819, aiming squarely at two government ministers (likely Castlereagh and Sidmouth) he saw as monsters. Rather than debate their policies, he piles up images of scavengers and poison. First they’re ravens croaking at the smell of burning bodies. Then they become night-birds flitting from deadly yew trees, and sharks lying in wait beneath a slave ship, gills wrinkling as they debate the human cargo. The final stanza drops “as” and simply names them: vultures hungry for a fight, scorpions under a wet stone, bloodless wolves with throats too dry to howl, crows perched on cattle dead from disease, and two vipers tangled into one. The mood is visceral disgust — the speaker isn’t reasoning, he’s spitting fury. Every image links them to rot, predation, and moral decay. The poem feels less like an argument and more like a curse spoken aloud.
Similes for Two Political Characters of 1819 — Summary
As from an ancestral oak Two empty ravens sound their clarion, Yell by yell, and croak by croak, When they scent the noonday smoke Of fresh human carrion:--
As two gibbering night-birds flit From their bowers of deadly yew Through the night to frighten it, When the moon is in a fit, And the stars are none, or few:--
As a shark and dog-fish wait Under an Atlantic isle, For the negro-ship, whose freight Is the theme of their debate, Wrinkling their red gills the while--
Are ye, two vultures sick for battle, Two scorpions under one wet stone, Two bloodless wolves whose dry throats rattle, Two crows perched on the murrained cattle, Two vipers tangled into one.
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