My poem of the week this week is James Russell Lowell\u2019s \u201cOnce to Every Man and Nation.\u201d This version, which appears in some hymnals, is edited from Lowell\u2019s original, and I have left out some verses which are problematic.<\/p>\n
These three verses powerfully communicate the need to stand for truth whether or not you will be successful. They communicate in verse a principle I state often with my kids and in classes- better to die nobly than to survive ignobly.<\/p>\n
Once to every man and nation, comes the moment to decide,
\nIn the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side;
\nSome great cause, some great decision, offering each the bloom or blight,
\nAnd the choice goes by forever, \u2019twixt that darkness and that light.<\/p>\nThen to side with truth is noble, when we share her wretched crust,
\nEre her cause bring fame and profit, and \u2019tis prosperous to be just;
\nThen it is the brave man chooses while the coward stands aside,
\nTill the multitude make virtue of the faith they had denied.<\/p>\nThough the cause of evil prosper, yet the truth alone is strong;
\nThough her portion be the scaffold, and upon the throne be wrong;
\nYet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown,
\nStandeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His own.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
– James Russell Lowell<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My poem of the week this week is James Russell Lowell\u2019s \u201cOnce to Every Man and Nation.\u201d This version, which appears in some hymnals, is edited from Lowell\u2019s original, and I have left out some verses which are problematic. These three verses powerfully communicate the need to stand for truth whether or not you will …<\/p>\n