Poem day again

 I may be the only one still doing this, I don't care. 
I still remember it fondly back from the early-aughts days of widespread blogs - the tradition was, on Candlemas/Imbolc/St. Bridget's Day/Groundhog Day, you shared a poem - either a new discovery or an old favorite.

I admit, this year I don't really have new discoveries - I didn't find any of the Aiken poems in the book I bought recently particularly to my liking, and I haven't looked at many recently.

But one of the beauties of poetry is that you can come back to it again and again, and either see something new, or take familiar comfort from it, or be stirred/strengthened by its words.

Which is why this is one of the ones I chose. I know an excerpted form of it as "Once to Every Man and Nation," which frankly is a hymn not sung enough (in my opinion), but the whole poem is longer and more complex. It's by James Russel Lowell, and my understanding it was written in protest against the war with Mexico - both as a general protest against that kind of war, but more, because Lowell was an abolitionist and was concerned that there might be a new slave-state being part of the Union:

I'm going to direct post the shorter text of the hymn, but the full text is here. 

And yes, it does feel very much like a Present Crisis to me, what we are facing, and we can choose to be humane, or continue down a path of spiralling cruelty.....and I fear for where that might end.

Here's the hymnal version (shorter, some word substitutions:

1 Once to every man and nation
comes the moment to decide,
in the strife of truth with falsehood,
for the good or evil side;
Some great cause, some great decision,
off'ring each the bloom or blight,
and the choice goes by forever
'twixt that darkness and that light.

2 Then to side with truth is noble,
when we share her wretched crust,
ere her cause bring fame and profit,
and 'tis prosp'rous to be just;
Then it is the brave man chooses
while the coward stands aside,
till the multitude make virtue
of the faith they had denied.

3 By the light of burning martyrs,
Christ, Thy bleeding feet we track;
toiling up new Calv'ries ever
with the cross that turns not back.
New occasions teach new duties;
ancient values test our youth.
They must upward still and onward,
who would keep abreast of truth.

4 Though the cause of evil prosper,
yet the truth alone is strong;
though her portion be the scaffold,
and upon the throne be wrong;
yet that scaffold sways the future,
and, behind the dim unknown,
standeth God within the shadow
keeping watch above His own.

 

You have to hear it, though, maybe, to understand why I love singing this hymn, the tune is very stirring. (Maybe there are other tunes it goes by, I don't know, but this is the one familiar to me)

the version here is apparently a "distanced choir" from the Cathedral of St. John the Divine (from COVID days, and yeah, I remember that too). But I like this version.

 The second verse is my favorite.

 Added: One thing I've realized about our CURRENT "present crisis" is that it's cemented me more deeply in my moral and ethical underpinnings, I am more willing to vocally say either "that is wrong and should not be" about things, or to say "The RIGHT thing to do in this situation is...." and not couch it in mealymouthed language to avoid maybe giving offense. Because people on the other side don't care if they offend, and I feel like empathy and kindness and generosity/graciousness are right, no matter what else is happening