Analysis of Say not the Struggle Naught availeth
Arthur Hugh Clough 1819 (Liverpool) – 1861 (Florence)
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!
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EBEB FGFG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 1101011 0100111 01001111 01111101 110111110 11101101 111111010 01110101 1101011010 11110111 11110110 11010001 011101010 1111001 010111110 11010111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 647 |
Words | 112 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 16 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 119 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 28 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 28, 2023
- 34 sec read
- 327 Views
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"Say not the Struggle Naught availeth" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/3896/say-not-the-struggle-naught-availeth>.
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