John Keats

Sonnet XVI. To Kosciusko

Good Kosciusko, thy great name alone Is a full harvest whence to reap high feeling; It comes upon us like the glorious pealing Of the wide spheres -- an everlasting tone. And now it tells me, that in worlds unknown, The names of heroes, burst from clouds concealing, And changed to harmonies, for ever stealing Through cloudless blue, and round each silver throne. It tells me too, that on a happy day, When some good spirit walks upon the earth, Thy name with Alfred's, and the great of yore Gently commingling, gives tremendous birth To a loud hymn, that sounds far, far away To where the great God lives for evermore. 'This sonnet was published in The Examiner for the 16th of February 1817. The punctuation differs slightly from that of the 1817 volume; and in the eighth line we read "around" for "and around". The date "Dec. 1816" and the initials "J. K. " appear under the sonnet in The Examiner. ' ~ Poetical Works of John Keats, ed. H. Buxton Forman, Crowell publ. 1895.