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.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Even when waves seem to lose ground, the tide silently rises behind them, ensuring eventual progress.
- In plain terms
- Progress looks slow but is happening underneath.
- What can you take from it?
- Quiet change often works beneath the surface.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Where do you see hidden progress?
- How do you wait?
Another view
It romanticizes inevitability over active effort.
More from 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, things remain.
Permalink to quote #20 In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly, But westward, look, the land is bright.
Permalink to quote #22 'There is no God,' the wicked saith, 'And truly it's a blessing, For what He might have done with us It's better only guessing.'
Permalink to quote #19
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