Saw just the title and I was like Chesterton! Nope!
My books are still buried in boxes otherwise I’d share his poem by the same title. Unfortunately it’s not published online.
Poem about a tree and a man growing separately and dying. The tree turns into coal and the man’s words endure on a page. Then the tree is reborn in fire to illuminate the page and the words then encourage the reader’s heart so the dead tree and the dead man lived not in vain.
"Say Not the Struggle Naught Availeth" is an English poem by Arthur Hugh Clough. It was written in 1849, and first published in The Crayon, an American art journal, in August 1855, under the title "The Struggle". Clough published the poem without a title in 1862. In The Poems and Prose Remains of Arthur Hugh Clough, 1869, the poem was titled "Say Not the Struggle Nought Availeth".
There was probably no specific event in the poet's mind, although the failed revolutions of 1848 and 1849 may have been an inspiration.
The last two stanzas were quoted by Winston Churchill in his "Report on the War" speech of April 27th 1941. Describing the lines as "appropriate to our fortunes tonight" he said "I believe they will be so judged wherever the English language is spoken or the flag of freedom flies.
Saw just the title and I was like Chesterton! Nope!
My books are still buried in boxes otherwise I’d share his poem by the same title. Unfortunately it’s not published online.
Poem about a tree and a man growing separately and dying. The tree turns into coal and the man’s words endure on a page. Then the tree is reborn in fire to illuminate the page and the words then encourage the reader’s heart so the dead tree and the dead man lived not in vain.
Thank you! I need a nice boost like this to keep me going.
I'd have guessed that Clough was a WWI poet, but I'd have been wrong.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Say Not the Struggle Naught Availeth
by Arthur Hugh Clough
Publication date August 1855
"Say Not the Struggle Naught Availeth" is an English poem by Arthur Hugh Clough. It was written in 1849, and first published in The Crayon, an American art journal, in August 1855, under the title "The Struggle". Clough published the poem without a title in 1862. In The Poems and Prose Remains of Arthur Hugh Clough, 1869, the poem was titled "Say Not the Struggle Nought Availeth".
There was probably no specific event in the poet's mind, although the failed revolutions of 1848 and 1849 may have been an inspiration.
The last two stanzas were quoted by Winston Churchill in his "Report on the War" speech of April 27th 1941. Describing the lines as "appropriate to our fortunes tonight" he said "I believe they will be so judged wherever the English language is spoken or the flag of freedom flies.