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Sonnet V

By Robert Southey

Topics: classic

Did then the bold Slave rear at last the Sword         Of Vengeance? drench'd he deep its thirsty blade     In the cold bosom of his tyrant lord?         Oh! who shall blame him? thro' the midnight shade     Still o'er his tortur'd memory rush'd the thought         Of every past delight; his native grove,         Friendship's best joys, and Liberty and Love,     All lost for ever! then Remembrance wrought     His soul to madness; round his restless bed         Freedom's pale spectre stalk'd, with a stern smile         Pointing the wounds of slavery, the while     She shook her chains and hung her sullen head:     No more on Heaven he calls with fruitless breath,     But sweetens with revenge, the draught of death.

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"Did then the bold Slave rear at last the Sword..."

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Author:Robert Southey

"Did then the bold Slave rear at last the Sword..." by Robert Southey

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"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Robert Southey

About Robert Southey

Robert Southey (1774–1843) was an English Romantic poet, historian, and biographer who served as Poet Laureate from 1813 to 1843. His poems include "The Battle of Blenheim" and "The Inchcape Rock," and he was a member of the Lake Poets alongside Wordsworth and Coleridge.

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"Enter this cavern Stranger! the ascent     Is long..."

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