The Present Crisis

‘The Present Crisis’ by James Russell Lowell is a long abolitionist poem written as a protest against slavery. Lowell penned this piece to oppose making Texas of America a state permitting slavery. The poem, originally titled “Verses Suggested by the Present Crisis,” has long since become the anthem for other forms of racial discrimination, particularly against people of color.

The Present Crisis
James Russell Lowell

When a deed is done for Freedom, through the broad earth's aching breast Runs a thrill of joy prophetic, trembling on from east to west,         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.               

Through the walls of hut and palace shoots the instantaneous throe,When the travail of the Ages wrings earth's systems to and fro;      At the birth of each new Era, with a recognizing start,         Nation wildly looks at nation, standing with mute lips apart,           And glad Truth's yet mightier man-child leaps beneath the Future's heart.    

So the Evil's triumph sendeth, with a terror and a chill,        Under continent to continent, the sense of coming ill,          And the slave, where'er he cowers, feels his sympathies with God  In hot tear-drops ebbing earthward, to be drunk up by the sod,        Till a corpse crawls round unburied, delving in the nobler clod.        

For mankind are one in spirit, and an instinct bears along,   Round the earth's electric circle, the swift flash of right or wrong;  Whether conscious or unconscious, yet Humanity's vast frame        Through its ocean-sundered fibres feels the gush of joy or shame;—           In the gain or loss of one race all the rest have equal claim.   

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, God's new Messiah, offering each the bloom or blight,  Parts the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep upon the right,      And the choice goes by forever 'twixt that darkness and that light.    

Hast thou chosen, O my people, on whose party thou shalt stand,   Ere the Doom from its worn sandals shakes the dust against our land?       Though the cause of Evil prosper, yet 'tis Truth alone is strong,      And, albeit she wander outcast now, I see around her throng           Troops of beautiful, tall angels, to enshield her from all wrong.        

Backward look across the ages and the beacon-moments see,          That, like peaks of some sunk continent, jut through Oblivion's sea;           Not an ear in court or market for the low, foreboding cry    Of those Crises, God's stern winnowers, from whose feet earth's chaff must fly;    Never shows the choice momentous till the judgment hath passed by.          

Careless seems the great Avenger; history's pages but record          One death-grapple in the darkness 'twixt old systems and the Word;           Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne,—        Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown,  Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.      

We see dimly in the Present what is small and what is great,           Slow of faith how weak an arm may turn the iron helm of fate,       But the soul is still oracular; amid the market's din, List the ominous stern whisper from the Delphic cave within,—     "They enslave their children's children who make compromise with sin."     

Slavery, the earth-born Cyclops, fellest of the giant brood,  Sons of brutish Force and Darkness, who have drenched the earth with blood,       Famished in his self-made desert, blinded by our purer day,Gropes in yet unblasted regions for his miserable prey;—    Shall we guide his gory fingers where our helpless children play?     

Then to side with Truth is noble when we share her wretched crust,Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and 'tis prosperous to be just;  Then it is the brave man chooses, while the coward stands aside,    Doubting in his abject spirit, till his Lord is crucified,          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,     While the men they agonized for hurled the contumelious stone,    Stood serene, and down the future saw the golden beam incline      To the side of perfect justice, mastered by their faith divine,By one man's plain truth to manhood and to God's supreme design.  

By the light of burning heretics Christ's bleeding feet I track,          Toiling up new Calvaries ever with the cross that turns not back,    And these mounts of anguish number how each generation learnedOne new word of that grand Credo which in prophet-hearts hath burned    Since the first man stood God-conquered with his face to heaven upturned.

For Humanity sweeps onward: where to-day the martyr stands,      On the morrow crouches Judas with the silver in his hands;Far in front the cross stands ready and the crackling fagots burn,    While the hooting mob of yesterday in silent awe return      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 fathers' graves,         Worshippers of light ancestral make the present light a crime;—     Was the Mayflower launched by cowards, steered by men behind their time?        Turn those tracks toward Past or Future, that made Plymouth Rock sublime?           

They were men of present valor, stalwart old iconoclasts,    Unconvinced by axe or gibbet that all virtue was the Past's;But we make their truth our falsehood, thinking that hath made us free,     Hoarding it in mouldy parchments, while our tender spirits flee      The rude grasp of that great Impulse which drove them across the sea.         

They have rights who dare maintain them; we are traitors to our sires,        Smothering in their holy ashes Freedom's new-lit altar-fires;           Shall we make their creed our jailer? Shall we, in our haste to slay,From the tombs of the old prophets steal the funeral lamps away    To light up the martyr-fagots round the prophets of to-day?  

New occasions teach new duties; Time makes ancient good uncouth;         They must upward still, and onward, who would keep abreast of Truth;     Lo, before us gleam her camp-fires! we ourselves must Pilgrims be,           Launch our Mayflower, and steer boldly through the desperate winter sea, Nor attempt the Future's portal with the Past's blood-rusted key.

Summary

‘The Present Crisis’ by James Russell Lowell is a poem written in support of the antislavery movement that occurred in 19th-century America.

‘The Present Crisis‘ begins with the speaker, Lowell himself, presenting the subject of his poem: the abolitionist movement. He predicts its aftereffects on the slave and America before elaborating on the nature of the nation’s opposition to his movement.

Lowell eventually forwards a call to action. He attempts to convince the population indifferent towards slavery to join his movement. As the poem progresses, he moves from reasoning with his audience to imploring to sensitizing them to the consequences of the slave trade. He then calls out their hypocrisy for praising their ancestors who were brave enough to challenge the status quo while they turn a blind eye to the current crisis called slavery, refusing to oppose it.

Towards the end, Lowell tells his indifferent audience that whether or not they respond to his call, he will keep fighting, even to the death, until the slave trade is abolished. Despite the apparent moodiness of the poem, ‘The Present Crisis’ ends on a wholesome note, with Lowell encouraging those who he envisions to have heeded his call. He assures them they are fighting for good, and good always wins.

Structure

‘The Present Crisis’ by James Russell Lowell comprises eighteen stanzas of five lines each. The poem is written in trochaic meter, each line comprising fifteen syllables with one stressed syllable followed by another unstressed. It also has a rhyme scheme of aabbb ccddd eefff gghhh and so on in the pattern of couplets followed by triplets.

The use of punctuation was popular among poets of the nineteenth century. Lowell is no exception to the group. The poet uses common punctuations like commas and periods to indicate a pause. He uses the question mark to reveal rhetorical questions. Lowell also uses dashes to indicate terminal caesuras.

Literary Devices

• Allusion: This is the dominant literary device in the poem. It is so prominent that one can observe whole stanzas (stanza 13, for example) singularly weaved with allusion. Excluding the reference to the Mayflower ship, Lowell uses spiritual, particularly biblical, allusions to drive the poem.
• Apostrophe: Lowell addresses the poem to an absent audience, though he does not use “you” but instead “we.” “…O my people…” in stanza six clearly indicates that the poem refers to Americans. Considering Lowell’s attempts to reason with the audience, he probably shuns the use of “you” to avoid sounding accusatory.
• Symbolism: One would notice the repeated use of “earth” or variations of it in some stanzas. This symbolizes not only the widespread acceptance of old systems, beliefs, or practices but also the extent of Lowell’s vision. Lowell truly believed that the abolitionist movement would spread throughout the world and change the earth.
• Personification: This is a prominent literary device in ‘The Present Crisis.’ As a clue, many capitalized words like “Doom,” “Truth,” “Ages,” “Evil,” “Freedom,” and even “Slavery” have human attributes at many points in the poem.
• Rhetorical Question: Lowell uses rhetorical questions to drive thought. They usually appear after Lowell presents an argument for his cause, thereby prompting his unseen audience to ponder on his perspective.
• Paradox: The most notable appearances of paradox are in stanza 3, line 5, stanza 9, line 2, and stanza 15, lines 1 to 2. At first, the statements/phrases seem absurd. However, they become clear with context. These paradoxes elevate the themes of ‘The Present Crisis.’ For one, a corpse crawling in stanza 3, line 5 talks about the slaves’ suffering. Stanza 9, line 2 refers to the fight against slavery, and the last example is part of Lowell’s call to action.
• Inversion: The presence of this literary device is unsurprising. Many poets in the 19th century used inversions in their poems, more for stylistic reasons than anything else. Lowell is no exception.
• Consonance: There is always a chance of finding this literary device in any 19th-century conventional poem. Then, poets like Lowell used consonance for rhythm. ‘The Present Crisis’ is not exempt from this. Repeated consonants are more noticeable when one reads the poem out loud.
• Assonance: This is the repetition of vowel sounds in a line of poetry. Like consonance, assonance is also more noticeable when one reads the poem out loud.

Detailed Analysis

Stanza One

When a deed is done for Freedom, through the broad earth’s aching breast 
Runs a thrill of joy prophetic, trembling on from east to west,         
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.  

Poets from the early days tended to express their ideas with elevated language. Lowell, the voice in this poem, is no exception. In the opening stanza, the poet’s persona introduces the abolitionist movement to his audience. He refers to it as the “deed… done for Freedom.” Capitalizing “Freedom” emphasizes one of the poem’s major themes: the freedom of slaves. Lowell makes it no secret that he’s certain the abolitionist movement will succeed. The phrase “thorny stem of Time,” in line 5, informs the audience that the movement was long overdue.

It is a brave beginning to a poem, considering at the time, the American government was still pro-slavery. Even though Lowell does not explicitly mention “abolition.” The aftereffect of Lowell’s “deed.” the happiness of slaves (elaborated between lines 3 to 5), clearly points to it. At the time, many considered abolitionists radicals and paid no attention to them. Still, with poems like this, Lowell and his kind fought for their cause from behind the scenes.

Stanza Two

Through the walls of hut and palace shoots the instantaneous throe,
When the travail of the Ages wrings earth’s systems to and fro;      
At the birth of each new Era, with a recognizing start,         
Nation wildly looks at nation, standing with mute lips apart,           
And glad Truth’s yet mightier man-child leaps beneath the Future’s heart.    

The use of “prophetic” in stanza one extends to stanza two, where Lowell continues predicting the aftermath of his movement. Though the first stanza of ‘The Present Crisis’ portrays the joy of the freed slave, this stanza reveals insetting confusion, and even pain, within nations post-abolition. This stanza gives a more accurate picture of the poem’s title. Lowell describes the crisis as ensuring a great change, such as abolishing slavery. In the poem, he calls it “the instantaneous throe.”

Again, words like “Ages,” “Truth,” “Era,” and “Future” are capitalized for emphasis. Lowell understands that for a while, many considered slavery normal and even right. This is why he calls it the ‘earth’s systems, because, for a long time, the nations functioned this way. Despite that fact, Lowell calls his movement the “Truth” (line 5). This shows that beliefs change no matter how long they have been around. It also gives readers insight into Lowell’s character. Unlike many, he does not follow the status quo.

In the last line, Lowell calls “Truth” a “man-child” to acknowledge the naysayers of the abolitionist movement. The people against Lowell’s cause likened his protest to the way a child dreamed; only he was a man. However, Lowell juxtaposing “man-child” with “mightier” underscores his determination to end the slave trade.

Stanza Three

So the Evil’s triumph sendeth, with a terror and a chill,        
Under continent to continent, the sense of coming ill,          
And the slave, where’er he cowers, feels his sympathies with God  
In hot tear-drops ebbing earthward, to be drunk up by the sod,        
Till a corpse crawls round unburied, delving in the nobler clod.        

The third stanza of ‘The Present Crisis’ elaborates on the expected opposition to the abolitionist movement. More so, it contrasts the first stanza in terms of the slave’s position if slavery is not abolished. “Evil” in this stanza refers to the people who are pro-slavery. Their “triumph” is the success of the slave trade.

Using the word “triumph” is ironic because of its good connotation. Lowell contrasts this connotation by saying their triumph brings fear and foreboding (line 2). Not only does Lowell reveal his perspective concerning these people by calling them “evil,” but he also portrays the plight of slaves in nineteenth-century America. One can gather from these lines that slaves lived in fear and suffering. In line 5, Lowell even compares them to the living dead.

Stanza Four

For mankind are one in spirit, and an instinct bears along,   
Round the earth’s electric circle, the swift flash of right or wrong;  
Whether conscious or unconscious, yet Humanity’s vast frame        
Through its ocean-sundered fibres feels the gush of joy or shame;—           
In the gain or loss of one race all the rest have equal claim.   

Lowell uses this stanza to reason with his audience, citizens of America then, concerning the abolition. Even though many then stood against slavery, the vast majority of the population remained indifferent. In this stanza, Lowell presents the argument that slaves are as human as this population and should not be seen as inferior. He appeals to his audience’s conscience between lines 1 and 2, saying they can still tell what is right and wrong, even if they have been desensitized to it. In the last line, he makes them aware that they are also equally responsible for the crimes of those who actively promote the slave trade. Lowell informs them there is no sitting on the fence.

An interesting point in this stanza is the mention of race and its correlation with slavery. Even though Lowell does not mention a particular race, he clearly indicates that slavery is borne of racism.

Stanza Five

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, God’s new Messiah, offering each the bloom or blight,  
Parts the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep upon the right,      
And the choice goes by forever ‘twixt that darkness and that light. 

Stanza Five of ‘The Present Crisis’ is heavy with biblical allusions. Lowell uses them intentionally to drive the seriousness of his subject home. He is still in the business of persuading the indifferent masses to join his movement. He tells them there are only two sides, his side is the Truth, and the decision they make is so important that it can change the course of history itself. Considering where we are in the present, we can fully agree that Lowell was right.

Stanza Six

Hast thou chosen, O my people, on whose party thou shalt stand,   
Ere the Doom from its worn sandals shakes the dust against our land?       
Though the cause of Evil prosper, yet ’tis Truth alone is strong,      
And, albeit she wander outcast now, I see around her throng           
Troops of beautiful, tall angels, to enshield her from all wrong.  

In this stanza, Lowell’s tone turns imploring, almost like he is pleading with the masses to see and choose his point of view, to choose “Truth.” The language here slightly changes as well. The age of this poem becomes more obvious than before with Lowell’s use of the authentic early versions of Modern English.

Documentaries on slavery reveal that many refused to protest against slavery because they ultimately thought it was a lost cause. Stanza two of this poem gives readers insight into the reasoning of those same people. However, between lines 3 to 5, Lowell aims to inspire hope in these people, again using spiritual illusions to give his words weight.

Stanza Seven

Backward look across the ages and the beacon-moments see,          
That, like peaks of some sunk continent, jut through Oblivion’s sea;           
Not an ear in court or market for the low, foreboding cry    
Of those Crises, God’s stern winnowers, from whose feet earth’s chaff must fly;    
Never shows the choice momentous till the judgment hath passed by.          

Stanza seven tells us two things about the speaker, the first being Lowell is a patriotic citizen. Lines 1 to 2 show this through his belief in the greatness of America. Secondly, this stanza (precisely line 5) reveals his belief that the choice to permit slavery ruined America. Therefore, by extension, his patriotism is the reason for his movement. Contrary to the government’s opinion on abolitionists at the time, Lowell and his colleagues fought slavery out of love for their country.

Stanza Eight

Careless seems the great Avenger; history’s pages but record          
One death-grapple in the darkness ‘twixt old systems and the Word;           
Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne,—        
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown,  
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.      

Although Lowell uses an abundance of spiritual references, it is not clear up until this stanza that Lowell was a believer. Line 5 tells readers Lowell believes God is on his side, watching over him and others wronged by the perpetrators of the slave trade. It is unsurprising, considering most of his earlier works were influenced by a sect of the Christian faith called Swedenborgianism, founded by Emanuel Swedenborg. “Word” in line 2 refers to the Word of God, which Lowell indirectly says condemns slavery. Lowell’s belief that God was on his side reminds one of Martin Luther King Jnr., another famous abolitionist and Christian.

Stanza Nine

We see dimly in the Present what is small and what is great,           
Slow of faith how weak an arm may turn the iron helm of fate,       
But the soul is still oracular; amid the market’s din, 
List the ominous stern whisper from the Delphic cave within,—     
“They enslave their children’s children who make compromise with sin.” 

Stanza nine of ‘The Present Crisis’ is Lowell’s warning to the masses. Line 5 especially carries dark undertones, telling his audience that eventually, their children will be next. It almost looks like a threat, and Lowell is done pleading. Mythology is evident in line 4. “…the Delphic cave…” specifically points to the oracle of Delphi, who ancient Greeks believed to predict the future. For creativity, Lowell uses this oracle to voice his own thoughts on the future of slavery. He tells his audience that if they do not stop the slave trade now, it will only be a matter of time before their children suffer the consequences.

Despite the dark undertones of the poem, we see a sign of hope in line 2. Here, Lowell’s tone is more light-hearted. Granted, it is his envisioning the end of slavery.

Stanza Ten

Slavery, the earth-born Cyclops, fellest of the giant brood,  
Sons of brutish Force and Darkness, who have drenched the earth with blood,       
Famished in his self-made desert, blinded by our purer day,
Gropes in yet unblasted regions for his miserable prey;—    
Shall we guide his gory fingers where our helpless children play?     

There is a noticeable change in the atmosphere in stanza ten. Lowell discards figures of speech and calls the subject of his poem slavery directly before reemploying personification to describe it. Though there is less of a threat in his tone, the warning to the masses is still evident. Line 5 ends this stanza on a cliffhanger; one can imagine his audience holding their breath while they ponder on the rhetorical but effective question. Lowell does not ask the question, expecting an immediate answer. He asks the question to get his audience to think.

It is a common tactic amongst activists and advocates to use children or “posterity” as a means to stir their audience. Lowell is no different.

Stanza Eleven

Then to side with Truth is noble when we share her wretched crust,
Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and ’tis prosperous to be just;  
Then it is the brave man chooses, while the coward stands aside,    
Doubting in his abject spirit, till his Lord is crucified,          
And the multitude make virtue of the faith they had denied.  

In this stanza, Lowell responds to an unspoken answer from the audience: “No, we do not want our children to be enslaved.” Again, he takes to reasoning with them, using allusion. He compares the indifference of his audience to the Jews’ and Gentiles’ rejection of Jesus. In the same manner, many in those groups only accepted Jesus after he was martyred, Lowell predicts his audience will only side with him after the government “martyrs” an abolitionist. Line 2 suggests that at the time Lowell wrote the poem, the abolitionist movement was not popular enough.

Almost prophetically, Lowell predicted his cause would expand. With that in mind, he wrote line 2 to attract genuine believers in his cause, not the many he anticipated would side with him because of the clout the movement would gain.

Stanza Twelve

Count me o’er earth’s chosen heroes,—they were souls that stood alone,     
While the men they agonized for hurled the contumelious stone,    
Stood serene, and down the future saw the golden beam incline      
To the side of perfect justice, mastered by their faith divine,
By one man’s plain truth to manhood and to God’s supreme design.  

In stanza twelve of ‘The Present Crisis,’ Lowell compares himself and his cause to men in the past who stood for the right thing. One can agree with the comparisons he makes. Men and women like him often fought alone and were rejected (at first) by the masses. Lines 3 to 5 contrast line 1 in stanza 9, where Lowell calls the masses myopic. Here, Lowell shares the reasons he would never give up the fight against the slave trade; unlike his readers, he sees hope.

Stanza Thirteen

By the light of burning heretics Christ’s bleeding feet I track,          
Toiling up new Calvaries ever with the cross that turns not back,    
And these mounts of anguish number how each generation learned
One new word of that grand Credo which in prophet-hearts hath burned    
Since the first man stood God-conquered with his face to heaven upturned.

At first glance, stanza thirteen looks like it does not belong in ‘The Present Crisis’ and is talking about something else entirely. However, Lowell is still giving reasons he would not stop fighting against slavery. This time around, Lowell uses allusion to describe how challenging the fight is and how despite that, he would not give up. This gives character to Lowell. Any reader who had not guessed it until now can clearly see Lowell’s tenacity in this stanza.

Stanza Fourteen

For Humanity sweeps onward: where to-day the martyr stands,      
On the morrow crouches Judas with the silver in his hands;
Far in front the cross stands ready and the crackling fagots burn,    
While the hooting mob of yesterday in silent awe return      
To glean up the scattered ashes into History’s golden urn.      

Lowell tells an unfortunate truth in this stanza, which is somewhat a repetition of stanza twelve. As with several men and women in history, their causes are only recognized and realized posthumously. Following faith-based allusions in this stanza, St. Joan of Arc, who fought to save France and was ultimately killed by her own people, comes to mind. Lowell reiterates that he will be like these people, even if it means living a lifetime of rejection, because he believes his audience will ultimately see his cause as truth.

Stanza Fifteen

‘Tis as easy to be heroes as to sit the idle slaves        
Of a legendary virtue carved upon our fathers’ graves,         
Worshippers of light ancestral make the present light a crime;—     
Was the Mayflower launched by cowards, steered by men behind their time?        
Turn those tracks toward Past or Future, that made Plymouth Rock sublime?         

Lowell transitions from imploring his audience to challenging them. At this point, Lowell must have been sure he had convinced some people to join his cause. But like a writer who knows the mind of his readers, Lowell senses these people are still afraid to fight, hence the challenge.

Lines 1 to 2 effortlessly portray paradox. Lowell says fighting the status quo is as easy as being indifferent to its ideologies. Considering previous stanzas, this is obviously not true. However, Lowell purposely inserts this paradox to plague his audience’s conscience. He is indirectly saying that after reading his poem, it will be difficult for readers to remain indifferent. He also calls out the hypocrisy of his audience in line 3. It is so subtle and casual that it stings to realize the true meaning of this line. Here, Lowell calls out his audience because they claim to admire the causes of their ancestors while refusing to see the good in his.

The real challenge comes in lines 4 and 5. Lowell uses the example of the Mayflower ship, which brought people from England to settle in America, specifically Plymouth. Then, no one had dared a sailing this brave. Lowell uses this example to show his audience that people who are afraid or who hold on to old beliefs can never do new things.

Stanza Sixteen

They were men of present valor, stalwart old iconoclasts,    
Unconvinced by axe or gibbet that all virtue was the Past’s;
But we make their truth our falsehood, thinking that hath made us free,     
Hoarding it in mouldy parchments, while our tender spirits flee      
The rude grasp of that great Impulse which drove them across the sea.         

Stanza sixteen continues the previous stanza, comparing the boldness of the crew who sailed the Mayflower to the indifference of Lowell’s audience. One can tell this incident must be one of those “beacon-moments” Lowell referred to in stanza seven. This stanza clarifies the meaning of stanza seven by exemplifying how, from Lowell’s perspective, America strayed. Lowell is still in the spirit of challenging, or even guilt-tripping, his audience, reminding them of the incidents that made America great. “…mouldy parchments…” in line 4 symbolizes the minds of his audience, which have been desensitized to the truth: Lowell’s cause.

Stanza Seventeen

They have rights who dare maintain them; we are traitors to our sires,        
Smothering in their holy ashes Freedom’s new-lit altar-fires;           
Shall we make their creed our jailer? Shall we, in our haste to slay,
From the tombs of the old prophets steal the funeral lamps away    
To light up the martyr-fagots round the prophets of to-day?  

Stanza seventeen of ‘The Present Crisis’ circles back to Lowell’s initial call to action. His lines here are the poetic version of “Let’s make America great again.” He uses rhetorical questions to get his audience to think. He even guilt-trips them by asking if they will keep soiling the history their ancestors made. The lines are so heavily metaphorical that one can easily miss their meaning.

Stanza Eighteen

New occasions teach new duties; Time makes ancient good uncouth;         
They must upward still, and onward, who would keep abreast of Truth;     
Lo, before us gleam her camp-fires! we ourselves must Pilgrims be,           
Launch our Mayflower, and steer boldly through the desperate winter sea, 
Nor attempt the Future’s portal with the Past’s blood-rusted key.

The last stanza of ‘The Present Crisis’ summarizes Lowell’s call to action on a wholesome note. With lines 1-2, Lowell encourages the people he’s certain to have converted by now. “Pilgrims” in line 3 alludes to the people on the Mayflower, who historical records call the same name. Lowell ends the poem in good spirits, restating his cause for the last time: Slavery is not the answer. In this manner, ‘The Present Crisis’ comes full circle.

FAQs

Similar Poetry

If you enjoyed reading ‘The Present Crisis,’ you are sure to enjoy the following as well:

• ‘Address to Slavery‘ by Samuel Wright: a poem expressing an abolitionist’s sympathy for slaves. It was written the day before the American Civil War in 1860, a war Lowell predicted slavery would cause.
• ‘The Slave Singing at Midnight‘ by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: is a poem written from the perspective of a white American male about a slave he’d heard singing about freedom.
• ‘The Death of Slavery‘ by William Cullen Bryant: Bryant, another abolitionist and colleague of Lowell, wrote this poem celebrating the end of slavery.