Say not the struggle nought availeth

[I wish all readers of this blog a happy and peaceful New Year. 

The following are three stanzas from A H Clough’s poem Say not the struggle nought availeth:]

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.

For while the tired waves, vainly breaking

Seem here no painful inch to gain,

 Far back through creeks and inlets making,

Came, 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.