THE PRESENT CRISIS JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL [This poem was written with special reference to the question of the annexation of Texas, but concerns the cause of anti-slavery generally, and indeed that of reform in any age. In the next to the last stanza Lowell refers to the fact that slavery was defended by arguments derived from the beliefs and deeds of our forefathers, who nevertheless were progressives in their day. The poem is here abbreviated by the omission of four stanzas.] When a deed is done for Freedom, through the broad earth's aching breast And the slave, where'er he cowers, feels the soul within him climb To the awful verge of manhood, as the energy sublime Of a century bursts full-blossomed on the thorny stem of Time. For mankind are one in spirit, and an instinct bears along, 10 Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide, Some great cause, God's new Messiah, offering each the bloom or blight, Hast thou chosen, O my people, on whose party thou shalt stand, Careless seems the great Avenger; history's pages but record We see dimly in the Present what is small and what is great, Then to side with Truth is noble when we share her wretched crust, And the multitude make virtue of the faith they had denied. Count me o'er earth's chosen heroes, they were souls that stood alone, 1 Delphic cave. The seat of the greatest of oracles. 20 30 40 By the light of burning heretics Christ's bleeding feet I track, Toiling up new Calvaries ever with the cross that turns not back, One new word of that grand Credo1 which in prophet-hearts hath burned For Humanity sweeps onward: where to-day the martyr stands, Far in front the cross stands ready and the crackling fagots burn, To glean up the scattered ashes into History's golden urn. 'Tis as easy to be heroes as to sit the idle slaves Of a legendary virtue carved upon our father's graves. Worshippers of light ancestral make the present light a crime; Was the Mayflower launched by cowards, steered by men behind their time? They were men of present valor, stalwart old iconoclasts, 50 The rude grasp of that great Impulse which drove them across the sea. But we make their truth our falsehood, thinking that hath made us free, 60 They have rights who dare maintain them; we are traitors to our sires, New occasions teach new duties; Time makes ancient good uncouth; I Credo, Creed, faith. 70 The tumult of each sacked and burning village; The shout that every prayer for mercy drowns; The soldiers' revels in the midst of pillage; The wail of famine in beleaguered towns; I miserere. Prayer for mercy (from the first word of Psalm 51, Latin version). a Cimbric forest. In the region of Jutland, an ancient home of the Cimbri. 3 battle-bell. A bell which the Florentines of the 13th century used to take with them, on wheels, to the battle-field. 4 teocallis. Temples (of the Aztecs). My childhood's earliest thoughts are linked with thee; The sight of thee calls back the robin's song, Who, from the dark old tree Beside the door, sang clearly all day long, And I, secure in childish piety, 41 Listened as if I heard an angel sing With news from heaven, which he could bring Fresh every day to my untainted ears When birds and flowers and I were happy peers. How like a prodigal doth Nature seem, When thou, for all thy gold, so common art! Thou teachest me to deem More sacredly of every human heart, Since each reflects in joy its scanty gleam 50 Of heaven, and could some wondrous secret show, Did we but pay the love we owe, And with a child's undoubting wisdom look On all these living pages of God's book. (1845) |