What is the theme and tone of Shelley's "Feelings of a Republican on the Fall of Bonaparte"?

With regard to Shelley's "Feelings of a Republican on the
Fall of Bonaparte," I believe that the sentiment the author expresses is anything but
cordial.

Shelley's first line quite simply states, "I hated
thee, fallen tyrant." In my opinion, I do not believe there is sarcasm used in this poem
based upon the thread of disgust the author seems to have for the "fallen" Bonaparte.
The tone is extremely title="malevolent"
href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/malevolent">malevolent as the
author carefully uses vivid and extremely negative words and phrases
like:

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Tyrant, slave, grave of Liberty,
bloody href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pomp">pomp, massacre, Treason,
href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/rapine">Rapine, Fear, Lust,
legal Crime, bloody Faith, and foulest birth of
Time.

The theme of the poem
seems to point to man's disregard for justice and "virtue" in the world by putting
himself and his interests, misplaced, before all others. The theme
is expressed early in the poem, when the poet accused Bonaparte of joyfully ("dancing")
destroying "Liberty." The use of "unambitious" seems to indicate that Shelley believed
that Napoleon did not have an inspired plan to change the world—to make it a better
place. Labeling him a "slave" would indicate how low the author feels about the man and
his standing within civilized society.

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I did groan

To think
that a most unambitious slave,

Like thou, should dance and
revel on the grave

Of
Liberty.

Shelley tells the
dead tyrant that he could have made a difference and established a
new kind of world for the French, that would live on:

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Thou mightst have built thy
throne

Where it had stood even
now...

However, Shelley goes
on to accuse Napoleon of taking a road which followed no sense of moral integrity,
choosing to raise himself at the cost of lives, the spilling of blood, which "Time" has
destroyed, indicating that all the French revolutionary did was for his own vanity
("pomp"), and is worthless—amounting to nothing of value:
gone.

...thou
didst prefer

A frail and bloody pomp, which Time has
swept

In fragments towards
oblivion.

Shelley admits that
he prayed that "massacre" would overtake Napoleon and all that he
stood for: treason and slavery, rapine (seizing goods from others), fear and lust, and
destroyed he who was the "minister" or leader of all these hated
elements.

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Massacre,

For this,
I prayed, would on thy sleep have crept,

Treason and
Slavery, Rapine, Fear, and Lust,

And stifled thee their
minister.

Shelley admits that
the knowledge comes to him late, in that Napoleon and France are destroyed, that
"Virtue" (which he personifies here as having a "foe") has an enemy that is more eternal
than the mortal Napoleon, or the military force or deceit that he visited upon the
world. Virtue's foe lies in sticking to the old ways instead of changing for the better,
committing crimes that are passed off as "legal," and "faith" that comes at the price of
bloodshed. The line "foulest birth of Time" makes me think that
Shelley is saying that Time will forever produce people like Napoleon as long as the
world lasts.

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I know

Too late,
since thou and France are in the dust,

That Virtue owns a
more eternal foe

Than Force or Fraud: old Custom, legal
Crime,

And bloody Faith, and foulest birth of
Time.

Shelley seems clear in
his hatred of Napoleon—how he lived and treated those who could not defy him. His theme
seems to concentrate on what Napoleon could have done for the good
of all, compared to what he chose to do, which served no one but
himself.

Please note that poetry
speaks to different people in diverse ways. These are my
impressions.