Present Crisis

Published in the 1840s, 'The Present Crisis' by James Russell Lowell is a significant poem that addresses the national turmoil over slavery in the United States, foreshadowing the Civil War. As an early work of the American Romantic movement, it reflects Lowell's involvement with the Fireside Poets, who sought to create poetry that resonated with American families. The poem has influenced modern civil rights movements, inspiring the NAACP's newsletter title and being frequently quoted by Martin Luther King, Jr. It also served as the basis for the hymn 'Once to Every Man and Nation.'