# Looking for a poem: "But see, the field is clear!" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 30, 2020, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-poem-but-see-the-field-is-clear/926763 "2020-11-30T04:59:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-poem-but-see-the-field-is-clear/926763/1 "2020-11-30T04:59:35Z")
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. Anyone? Bueller? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-poem-but-see-the-field-is-clear/926763/2 "2020-11-30T05:06:56Z")
_By Blue Ontario’s Shore,_ by Whitman? ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-poem-but-see-the-field-is-clear/926763/3 "2020-11-30T05:14:25Z")
Nope, fraid that’s not it, thanks. Much longer than the one I’m thinking of, and more likely to be a British poet. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-poem-but-see-the-field-is-clear/926763/4 "2020-11-30T05:37:26Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > 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. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-poem-but-see-the-field-is-clear/926763/5 "2020-11-30T05:43:39Z")
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: [http://www.yourdailypoem.com/listpoem.jsp?poem\_id=1820](http://www.yourdailypoem.com/listpoem.jsp?poem_id=1820) ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-poem-but-see-the-field-is-clear/926763/6 "2020-11-30T05:48:06Z")
Don’t know whether that’s what Northern Piper’s thinking of; but it certainly isn’t the one I’m thinking of. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-poem-but-see-the-field-is-clear/926763/7 "2020-11-30T07:11:23Z")
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. \* [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/arthur-hugh-clough](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/arthur-hugh-clough) ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-poem-but-see-the-field-is-clear/926763/8 "2020-11-30T07:14:28Z")
The last verse was quoted by Churchill in a radio speech just as the tide of the European war was turning, with the USA being brought in. ---
**Author:** ![Tabco](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tabco/32/7644_2.png) [@Tabco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabco)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-poem-but-see-the-field-is-clear/926763/9 "2020-11-30T07:23:44Z")
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.” Read it here (at wikipedia): > **[Henry Newbolt | "Vitaï Lampada"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Newbolt#%22Vita%C3%AF_Lampada%22)** > > Probably the best known of all Newbolt's poems, which was written in 1892 and for which he is now chiefly remembered, is "Vitaï Lampada". The title is taken from a quotation by Lucretius and means "the torch of life". It describes how a schoolboy, a future soldier, learns selfless commitment to duty in cricket matches in the Close at Clifton College: ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-poem-but-see-the-field-is-clear/926763/10 "2020-11-30T09:39:29Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > The last verse was quoted by Churchill in a radio speech just as the tide of the European war was turning, with the USA being brought in. At the time, it was known not only as a poem, but also as a hymn. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-poem-but-see-the-field-is-clear/926763/11 "2020-11-30T11:20:07Z")
“Say not the Struggle Naught Availeth” is what popped into my head when I saw the thread title. [Here’s a dramatic reading of it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLUpP9UIlmI&ab_channel=headlink) from UBS’ 90’s series of classic poems, which also produced such gems as [Ben Kingsley | Ozymandias (1996)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krbX-9ugbI4&ab_channel=KidMillions) and [If (Rudyard Kipling) - Harvey Keitel.mpg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6p7Agy4emqU&ab_channel=MichelDaw) ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-poem-but-see-the-field-is-clear/926763/12 "2020-11-30T15:05:35Z")
That’s it! Thanks! I was misremembering the last line, which is why i couldn’t find it in searches. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-poem-but-see-the-field-is-clear/926763/13 "2020-11-30T15:07:40Z")
Just by coincidence, I quoted that one yesterday in the Games thread about the Broncos-Saints game: > [@Broncos are going to play Saints without any quarterbacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broncos-are-going-to-play-saints-without-any-quarterbacks/926730/22): > > Ah well, the receiver-cum-quarterback did his duty: > > > [@](#): > > > > THERE’S a breathless hush in the Close to-night - > > > > > Ten to make and the match to win - > > > A bumping pitch and a blinding light, > > > An hour to play and the last man in. > > > And it’s not for the sake of a ribboned coat, > > > Or the selfish hope of a season’s fame, > > > But his Captain’s hand on his shoulder smote > > > “Play up! play up! and play the 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. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-poem-but-see-the-field-is-clear/926763/14 "2020-11-30T15:14:33Z")
I appear to have been merging the last line of the second verse with the last line of the fourth verse. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-poem-but-see-the-field-is-clear/926763/15 "2020-11-30T16:01:56Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > Clough’s \* Say not the Struggle Naught Availeth Definitely the one I was thinking of, also. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-poem-but-see-the-field-is-clear/926763/16 "2020-11-30T18:21:17Z")
Interesting poem - had never come across it before. thanks!