Say not the struggle nought availeth

This video is taken from the BBC 'Play for Today' production of the John Osbourne play 'Right Prospectus'. This was originally aired on 22 October 1970.

It stars George 'Minder' Cole who, along with his wife, decides to enrole in a public school, despite being well past school age. It features the Arthur Hugh Clough poem 'Say not the Struggle nought Availeth' which was originally intended as a rallying call for the radical movement in the 1850's, especially in response to the setbacks suffered by revolutionary movements in France and Italy in 1848 and 1849. It is sung as a hymn, set to the tune 'St. Clement', which is most often used for the hymn 'The Day Thou Gavest'. The words are as follows:

Say not the struggle nought availeth,
The labour and the wounds are vain,
The enemy faints not nor faileth,
And as things have been, things remain;

If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars;
It may be, in yon smoke conceal'd,
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.

Clough's words were later echoed in Edward Carpenter's socialist anthem 'England Arise!' which begins with the following verse:

England, arise! The long long night is over,
Faint in the east behold the dawn appear;
Out of your evil dream of toil and sorrow
Arise, O England, for the day is here.

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[tominbrno]

wow my school