| Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867. | | | | VII. On the Last Failure of Kosciusko | | By Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) |
| | | O WHAT a loud and fearful shriek was there, | |
| As though a thousand souls one death-groan poured! | |
| Ah me! they saw beneath a hireling’s sword | |
| Their KOSCIUSKO fall! Through the swart air | |
| (As pauses the tired Cossack’s barbarous yell | 5 |
| Of triumph) on the chill and midnight gale | |
| Rises with frantic burst, or sadder swell, | |
| The dirge of murdered Hope! while Freedom pale | |
| Bends in such anguish o’er her destined bier, | |
| As if from eldest time some Spirit meek | 10 |
| Had gathered in a mystic urn each tear | |
| That ever on a patriot’s furrowed cheek | |
| Fit channel found; and she had drained the bowl | |
| In the mere wilfulness and sick despair of soul! | | | | |
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