I’m trying to find a poem that I read once, but can’t remember the author or the title, so I turn to the brightest group on the planet (and who knows, maybe even one of the dipsticks will know the answer).
It’s a poem, probably Victorian, about the need for people to keep fighting for the things they believe in, even when chances of success seem low.
It ends with the image that even though you can’t see it because of all the thunder and dust of the battle, up ahead, the field is clear, or words to that effect.
I also can’t remember the author, or the title, or for that matter any of the rest of the poem. But FWIW I’m pretty sure I’ve read it too; I can remember the feel of it. And now it’s bugging me too. Maybe it’ll come to me.
Might it be “Don’t Quit”? It’s been attributed to John Greenleaf Whittier, Edgar A. Guest, and Anonymous, so it seems that nobody really knows who wrote it. Have a look:
The line quoted sounds like a misremembering of Clough’s * Say 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 concealed,
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. *
Reminds me of the poem Vitaï Lampada by Sir Henry Newbolt, which ends every stanza with “Play up! Play up! and play the game!” The short poem includes references to fields, dust, battle, and has the overall theme of “not quitting.”
Just by coincidence, I quoted that one yesterday in the Games thread about the Broncos-Saints game:
There is a difference between the two, though. Vitaï Lampada seems more straightforward, not to give in even in clearly bad circumstances; courage even in a last hope situation; a leadership role.
“Say not…” is more about discouragement even when others are still pushing forward with the struggle, and you don’t appreciate that your own efforts will contribute to the victory, even though that’s not apparent at the time.