Arthur Hugh Clough
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Arthur Hugh Clough (1819–1861) was a nineteenth-century English poet whose work explores faith, doubt, moral struggle, and the restlessness of modern life. This article presents a detailed biography, analysis of his poetry, and some of his memorable lines.
Introduction
Arthur Hugh Clough (January 1, 1819 – November 13, 1861) was a Victorian English poet known for his introspective, often skeptical verse that grappled with the tensions of faith, doubt, and change. Though lesser known today than some contemporaries, Clough’s poetry anticipates later modernist concerns—and his short “Say Not the Struggle Naught Availeth” remains one of his most enduring works.
He also worked in education, public service, and as an assistant to Florence Nightingale, and his life was marked by restlessness—across theology, public institutions, and geography.
Early Life and Family
Clough was born in Liverpool, England, on January 1, 1819, to James Butler Clough (a cotton merchant) and Anne Perfect. His father had Welsh connections and some family landholding in Denbighshire.
When Clough was young, his family moved to the United States: in 1822 they emigrated to Charleston, South Carolina, though in 1828 Arthur and his brother returned to England for schooling. The early years were somewhat unsettled; the family’s finances were not always secure.
Clough’s sister Anne Clough later became prominent as a suffragist and educationalist.
Education & Intellectual Formation
Clough attended Rugby School under Thomas Arnold (a leading school reformer), which deeply shaped his moral and intellectual tone. His friendship with Matthew Arnold (who arrived later at Oxford) would become important in literary circles.
In 1837, Clough won a scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford. At Oxford, he initially was sympathetic to the High Church (Anglo-Catholic) movement associated with John Henry Newman, but later rejected its doctrinal demands as his own religious doubts grew.
He graduated with a Second Class degree (rather than First) but secured a fellowship/tutorship at Oriel College, Oxford.
However, by 1848 Clough found that his religious scruples prevented him from subscribing fully to the requirements of the Church of England. He resigned his fellowship and left Oxford.
Career, Travels & Public Service
After leaving Oxford, Clough’s life became more peripatetic. In 1848 he traveled to Paris during the 1848 revolutions, where he met Ralph Waldo Emerson (then also traveling Europe) and engaged in intellectual exchange.
He composed significant longer poems during his traveling years: The Bothie of Toper-na-Vuolich (originally The Bothie of Toper-na-fuosich) in 1848, written in English hexameters, is a pastoral narrative poem that blends social commentary, travel, and intellectual restlessness.
Other long works include Amours de Voyage (1849), Dipsychus (c. 1850), and the fragments of Mari Magno (1861) written on sea journeys.
To support his family (especially after the death of his father and younger brother), Clough took a position as Principal of University Hall, a hostel for Unitarian students at University College, London, in autumn 1849. He found it constraining.
In 1852, Clough visited the U.S. (Cambridge, Massachusetts), lectured, and edited works, before returning to London where he entered public service. He worked as an examiner in the Education Office.
Clough also assisted Florence Nightingale by working as a secretary and helping with her statistical and health reform causes, although his health and commitments limited that work.
By 1860 his health was failing. He traveled across Europe, visiting Greece, Turkey, and France in 1861. On a voyage with his wife, he contracted malaria in Italy and died in Florence on November 13, 1861, aged 42.
He was buried in the English Cemetery in Florence.
Matthew Arnold later commemorated him in the elegy “Thyrsis”.
Clough and his wife, Blanche Mary Shore Smith, had children, among them Blanche Athena Clough, who later became a noted educator and principal at Newnham College, Cambridge.
Themes & Literary Style
Religious Doubt and Ethical Struggle
A defining feature of Clough’s poetry is his wrestling with religious doubt, moral uncertainty, and the challenge of upholding integrity in a changing world.
In poems like Through a Glass Darkly, Clough explores the limits of perception, faith, and the tension between the intellect and the heart.
Experimentation & Formal Innovation
Though much Victorian poetry adhered to strict forms, Clough experimented: The Bothie of Toper-na-Vuolich is written in English hexameters, a daring formal choice that attracted both admiration and criticism.
He also engaged with classical meters, narrative lyric forms, and shifting vantage points—straddling narrative and lyric sensibilities.
Social Reflection & Travel
Many of his longer poems reflect travel, movement, social crosscurrents, and the tension between rootedness and wandering. The landscapes—Scottish highlands, Italian locales, sea voyages—often serve as metaphors for internal journeys.
He also touches on social sensibility—class divisions, obligation, unfulfilled expectations—and sometimes satirizes moral pretension (e.g. The Latest Decalogue).
Tone: Melancholy, Irony, Restlessness
Clough’s poems often carry a quiet melancholy, a sense of movement without arrival, and moral tension. He is rarely triumphant; his voice often acknowledges failure, uncertainty, and imperfection.
Notable Works & Poems
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The Bothie of Toper-na-Vuolich (1848) — a narrative hexameter poem combining pastoral, social observation, and youthful wanderlust.
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Amours de Voyage (1849) — a romantic voyage in verse, exploring love, distance, and guilt.
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Dipsychus (c. 1850) — more satirical and philosophical, grappling with duality in human nature.
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Mari Magno, or Tales on Board (1861 fragmentary) — composed while at sea; blends lyrical and narrative elements.
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“Say Not the Struggle Naught Availeth” — one of his most famous short poems. Written in 1849, published later (1855 in The Crayon), it encourages persistence in struggle.
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“The Latest Decalogue” — a satirical poem on hypocritical moralism; one line is sometimes quoted in discourse on ethics.
Influence & Reception
During his life, Clough’s work was not especially popular with the mainstream Victorian readership, partly because of its moral ambiguity and formal experimentation.
After his death, his reputation grew among critics who valued his intellectual depth, his probing of doubt, and his formal innovations. He’s often seen as a transitional figure between Romantic or Victorian poets and more modern sensibilities.
His close friendship with Matthew Arnold and the elegy Thyrsis helped consolidate his literary memory. Arnold’s Thyrsis is a moving tribute to Clough’s spirit and loss.
ors (especially his widow) made early editorial choices omitting or softening passages in Dipsychus and other poems to avoid scandal; later editors have restored some of that material.
Clough’s lines have been used as epigraphs in modern fiction (e.g. The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles) and quoted in various literary contexts.
Memorable Quotations
Here are some lines often quoted from Clough’s poems:
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From “Say Not the Struggle Naught Availeth”:
“Say not the Struggle Nought Availeth,
The Labour and the wounds are vain,
The enemy faints not, nor falleth,
And as things have been they remain.” -
From Through a Glass Darkly (often cited):
“Ah yet, when all is thought and said, / The heart still overrules the head; / Still what we hope we must believe, / And what is given us receive.”
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From The Latest Decalogue (satirical moral couplet sometimes quoted in medical ethics):
“Thou shalt not kill; but needst not strive / Officiously to keep alive.”
These lines show his moral ambivalence, irony, and capacity to cut through conventional pieties.
Lessons from Clough’s Life & Work
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Honesty in doubt: Clough shows that one need not pretend certainty to live a serious moral life. He believed authenticity in questioning is itself a virtue.
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Artistic risk: His experiments with form (hexameter, narrative-lyric hybridity) remind us that growth often comes through formal risk, not only convention.
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Integration of life and poem: His travels, public service, friendships, and intellectual engagement flowed into his poetry—he did not isolate himself in aestheticism.
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Short life, sustained impact: Although he died young, his influence endures—especially among readers who value complexity over facile reassurance.
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The power of restraint: Clough’s voice is rarely bombastic; he lets tension, nuance, and understatement do much of the work. That subtlety can have lasting emotional effect.
Conclusion
Arthur Hugh Clough remains a fascinating figure at the crossroads of Victorian faith and modern uncertainty. His life was restless—across scholarship, moral questioning, institutional roles, and travel—and his poems reflect that restlessness. He wrestled openly with hope, failure, longing, and the ambiguous demands of conscience.
Though not as widely read today as some of his peers, Clough’s voice rewards readers who dwell in complexity. His short but intense life and his poetic legacy remind us that poetry can be not the offering of answers but the courageous engagement with questions.