While Sue was in Milwaukee Xmas shopping with Abby and then helping out at Fox Point, I worked on Great Lakes Islands stuff and Democratic Party stuff, along with several outings with Pax. Non-wintery weather, though ice remains on ponds and shallow lakes.

Caught a fragment of the poem below on one of the episodes of Endeavor (which we are watching at present). Like many poems, it takes a few readings (even one aloud) before it makes complete sense, but eventually it does, and when it does, it’s good.

Say not the struggle nought availeth
—Arthur Hugh 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.

Say not the struggle nought availeth—Arthur Hugh Clough

Say not the struggle nought availeth
—Arthur Hugh Clough