SAY NOT THE STRUGGLE NAUGHT AVAILETH

 

                SAY NOT THE STRUGGLE NAUGHT AVAILETH               

            “Say Not The Struggle Naught  Availeth” is an inspirational poem written by the English poet Arthur Hugh Clough (1819-61).

 

            It assures the readers that ultimately every struggle achieves its desired results. In the beginning, the degree of success attained by it may be invisible. However, it is there, though currently invisible. So one should not feel disappointed and stop struggling.  This initial phenomenon of invisible success is also in many other fields of life.

 

            Clough’s poem begins with a reference to the results in a battlefield. It is said that the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill made it famous by quoting its final two stanzas in a 1941 radio broadcast to inspire the British public during a dark period of World War II, “emphasizing that continued efforts will ultimately lead to success.”

 

            Here is the full text of the poem:

“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 westward look, the land is bright!  

 

            Finally, according to a critic the poet’s message about the deceptive nature of apparent failure has found resonance in various historical moments of social struggle.

 

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G. R. Kanwal

11 September 2025