'She has gone down!' they shout it from afar,
Kings—nobles—priests—all men of every race,
Whose lagging clogs Time's swift relentless pace;—
'She has gone down! our evil-boding star!
Rebellion, smitten with rebellion's sword,
Anarchy, done to death by slavery,
Of ancient right insolent enemy;
Beneath a hideous cloud of civil war,
Strife, such as heathen slaughterers had abhorr'd,
The lawless land, where no man was call'd lord,
Spurning all wholesome curb, and dreaming free
Her rabble rule's licentious tyranny;—
In the fierce splendour of her arrogant morn,
She has gone down! the world's eternal scorn!'
Frances Anne Kemble
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/sonnet-on-the-american-war-2/
