History & Politics

To Kosciusko

by Leigh Hunt 1784–1859

From The Poetical Works of Leigh Hunt (1844)

History & Politics

'Tis like thy patient valour thus to keep,
Great Kosciusko, to the rural shade,
While Freedom's ill-found amulet still is made
Pretence for old aggression, and a heap
Of selfish mockeries. There, as in the sweep
Of stormier fields, thou earnest with thy blade,
Transform'd, not inly alter'd, to the spade,
Thy never yielding right to a calm sleep.

There came a wanderer, borne from land to land
Upon a couch, pale, many-wounded, mild,
His brow with patient pain dulcetly sour.
Men stoop'd with awful sweetness on his hand,
And kiss'd it; and collected Virtue smiled,
To think how sovereign her enduring hour.

✦ ✦ ✦

A sonnet in praise of the Polish patriot Kosciuszko in his rural retirement, where he has turned from sword to spade while the cause of 'Freedom' is made a pretext for old aggression.

MLA

Hunt, Leigh. “To Kosciusko.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/hunt/5/.

Chicago

Hunt, Leigh. “To Kosciusko.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/hunt/5/.

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