Not the Struggle Naught Availeth

 

Not the Struggle Naught Availeth

 

         

Say not the struggle naught availeth

The labour and the wounds are vain,

The enemy faints not , nor faileth,

And as things have been they remain.

 

If hopes were dupes , fears may be liars;

It may be, in yon, smoke conceal’d,

Your comrades chase e’en now the fliers,

And, but for you possess the field.

 

For while the tired waves, vainly breaking,

Seem here no painful inch to gain,

Far back, through creeks and inlets making,

Comes silent, flooding in, the main.

 

And not by eastern windows only,

When daylight comes, comes in the light;

In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly !

But backward, look, the land is bright !

 

This is a most famous poem by Arthur Hugh Clough (1819—1861}. The theme is belief and disbelief, hope and despair about the results of human efforts and struggle. 

 

Pessimists think that their struggle has gone waste. There has been no change in the existing situation. But,  according to the poet, this is an incorrect assessment. The signs of success in any adventure are spread over a large area , as about soldiers’ victory  in a  large battle field or the success of the breaking waves in the vast sea.

The whole success is not concentrated at one place.  It is spread over.  If there is no gain at one spot, there is a lot of it at another.

 

Clough gives a very brilliant example of the rising sun:

                       

And not by eastern windows only,

                        When daylight comes, comes in the light;

                        In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly !

                        But westward, look, the land is bright !

 

                                    **********

 G.R.Kanwal

26^th September 2023