Skip to content
Linespedia

Alcaics

By Arthur Hugh Clough

Topics: classic

So spake the voice: and as with a single life     Instinct, the whole mass, fierce, irretainable,     Down on that unsuspecting host swept;     Down, with the fury of winds, that all night     Upbrimming, sapping slowly the dyke, at dawn     Fall through the breach oer holmstead and harvest; and     Heard roll a deluge: while the milkmaid     Trips i the dew, and remissly guiding     Morns first uneven furrow, the farmers boy     Dreams out his dream; so, over the multitude     Safe-tented, uncontrolled and uncon-     trollably sped the Avengers fury.

AI analysis available. Enable JavaScript to interact.

About this line

"So spake the voice: and as with a single life..."

Exploring the themes of classic, Arthur Hugh Clough delivers a powerful performance in "Alcaics"... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

Attribution & Rights

Author:Arthur Hugh Clough

"So spake the voice: and as with a single life..." by Arthur Hugh Clough

For usage rights, copyright concerns, or to report an issue with this content, please visit our Copyright & Report page.

Related lines

"Cease, empty Faith, the Spectrum saith,     I was, and lo, have been;     I, God, am nought: a shade of thought,     Which, but by darkness see"

"These are the words of Jacobs wives, the words     Which Leah spake and Rachel to his ears,     When, in the shade at eventide, he sat     By"

"To spend uncounted years of pain,     Again, again, and yet again,     In working out in heart and brain     The problem of our being here;"

"On grass, on gravel, in the sun,     Or now beneath the shade,     They went, in pleasant Kensington,     A prentice and a maid.     That Sun"

"Here morning in the ploughman's songs is met     Ere yet one footstep shows in all the sky,     And twilight in the east, a doubt as yet,     S"

"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Arthur Hugh Clough

About Arthur Hugh Clough

Arthur Hugh Clough (1819–1861) was an English poet whose work explores Victorian doubt and moral uncertainty. His poems "Say Not the Struggle Naught Availeth" and "The Latest Decalogue" are sharp, thoughtful, and still widely anthologized.

Full Bibliography
Continue Reading

"Cease, empty Faith, the Spectrum saith,     I was,..."

Weekly Poetic Insight

Join our literary Sanctuary

Get the most inspiring lines, poetic analysis, and secret shayaris delivered to your inbox every Sunday.