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.

James Russell Lowell (1819-1891): The Present Crisis.

Oh for a tongue to curse the slave

Whose treason, like a deadly blight,

Comes o'er the councils of the brave,

And blasts them in their hour of might!

Thomas Moore (1779-1852): The Fire-Worshippers.