Sunlight dapples the fields in one of the Lake District’s many valleys. The year 1849 was a difficult one for Clough. “This was without doubt the dreariest, loneliest period of his life,” wrote a friend, “and he became compressed and reserved to a degree quite unusual with him, both before and afterwards. He shut himself up, and went through his life in silence.” The grief that so poisoned his life was the constant pressure to think like those around him, something he found he was expected to do as much by ‘liberals’ as by ‘conservatives’.
Introduction
In 1848, Arthur Hugh Clough resigned a desirable Fellowship at Oxford owing to his doubts about the Church of England. Shortly afterwards he was appointed Principal of University Hall in London, an ecumenical and supposedly more open-minded institution, but here too Clough found he was expected to think as his new colleagues did. Lonely, silent and depressed, he nevertheless clung on to hope.
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.*
From ‘The Poems of Arthur Hugh Clough’ (1899) by Arthur Hugh Clough (1819-1861).
* ‘Fliers’ are rapidly retreating soldiers.
* ‘The main’ is the sea, especially a broad expanse of sea.
* Clough means that looking to the future may bring more hope than looking only at the present, just as you can sometimes appreciate the morning sunrise better by looking on sunlit fields in the west than by looking directly towards the east.
Questions for Critics
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.
Précis
During a particularly trying year, 1849, poet Arthur Clough encouraged everyone to persevere. Our hopes may have disappointed, but our anxieties may be just as false: tides change slowly but they do change, and just as we see the first light of dawn on distant hills, so we should look to the future to see our present gloom already lifting. (60 / 60 words)
During a particularly trying year, 1849, poet Arthur Clough encouraged everyone to persevere. Our hopes may have disappointed, but our anxieties may be just as false: tides change slowly but they do change, and just as we see the first light of dawn on distant hills, so we should look to the future to see our present gloom already lifting.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: about, although, must, not, otherwise, ought, since, whether.
Archive
Word Games
Spinners Find in Think and Speak
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 Inlet. Liar. Naught.
2 Slow. Sun. Through.
3 Fly. Only. Vain.
Variations: 1. include direct and indirect speech 2. include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who 3. use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
Confusables Find in Think and Speak
In each group below, you will find words that are similar to one another, but not exactly the same. Compose your own sentences to bring out the similarities and differences between them, whether in meaning, grammar or use.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1.
Appear.
Seem.
2.
Break.
Snap.
3.
Broke.
Broken.
4.
During.
While.
5.
Silent.
Quiet.
6.
Sole.
Only.
7.
Through.
Thorough.
8.
Vain.
Proud.
9.
Wave.
Surf.
Homonyms Find in Think and Speak
Each of the words below has more than one possible meaning. Compose your own sentences to show what those different meanings are.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1. Light. 2. Bright. 3. May. 4. Break.
Add Vowels Find in Think and Speak
Make words by adding vowels to each group of consonants below. You may add as many vowels as you like before, between or after the consonants, but you may not add any consonants or change the order of those you have been given. See if you can beat our target of common words.
shr (6+2)
ashore. share. shear. sheer. shore. usher.
sharia. shire.
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