Rise like Lions... peacefully.

Percy Shelley wrote a poem called the Masque of Anarchy. Recently I noticed it referenced in two different newspaper articles as though the poem promoted anarchy. I went searching for more.

Examples:
http://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2010/11/protest-action-cuts-britain
This article quotes the line "Rise like lions after slumber/In unvanquishable number!", and goes on to describe it as a call to violence.

http://www.app.com/article/20101216/NEWS06/101216009/A-glimpse-into-the-mind-of-Clay-Duke-the-man-behind-the-Fla-school-board-shooting-
This article notes a bipolar shooter's interest in "anarchy," based on the shooter's quotation of the poem.

http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/shelley/maskofanarchy.html
The poem is even posted on an anarchist website:

Characterizations of the poem as promoting anarchy, violence, and lawlessness are incorrect. The titular Masque is a high school prom thrown by Anarchy and his pals Murder, Fraud, Hypocrisy and other Destructions. And Anarchy is a dick.

"Last came Anarchy: he rode
On a white horse, splashed with blood;
He was pale even to the lips,
Like Death in the Apocalypse.
And he wore a kingly crown;
And in his grasp a sceptre shone;
On his brow this mark I saw -
'I AM GOD, AND KING, AND LAW!"

Furthermore, the poem promotes social change via nonviolent protest and passive resistance. Gandhi was a fan. E.g.:
"And if then the tyrants dare
Let them ride among you there
Slash, and stab, and maim, and hew
What they like, that let them do."

Finally, Shelley advocated for the rule of law:
"Let the laws of your own land,
Good or ill, between ye stand
Hand to hand, and foot to foot,
Arbiters of the dispute"

In summary, Shelley saw the authoritarian government of his time as Anarchy manifest, and saw nonviolent protest as a means of restoring peace, law and justice. Clay Duke was apparently off his meds, so we can understand him thinking that Shelley intended people to "rise like lions" by shooting at people or causing a ruckus. The rest of us should know better.

It's a bitchin' poem. I encourage you to read it for yourself, and make up your own mind:

http://www.historyhome.co.uk/c-eight/distress/masque.htm