"a world so hateful / some would rather die / than be who they are"

For Poetry Monday, "Say not the struggle nought availeth," Arthur Clough:

Say not the struggle nought 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.



Another foundational poet of early Modernism, especially for the subjectivism of many his poems (which influenced Eliot and others). Not that you'd know that from this, his most popular (and often only known) work. I'm especially fond of his novel in verse, Amours de Voyage, but this is more important for right now.

---L.

Subject quote from "Same Love," Macklemore & Ryan Lewis.