No Nearer

Haldeen BraddyAnxious

Time is passing: Tomorrow is no nearer. Time is passing: Today is very long. Over the unquiet earth, the great fire flows. Over our day and night, the stars have fallen. Up the avenues of earth, the soldiers’ feet come And the soldiers’ laugh and the soldiers’ cry And the soldiers’ world becomes the day.

Ever present over this once fertile ground the wind And the wind’s way and wind’s word To this land now dying whispers This message of the wind ever present: Time is passing: tomorrow is no nearer.

Out of the jungle the tiger driven and the lion. Out of the swamp the crane and the duck gone. Heavy the clouds over the winter moon. Too bright this desert sun. Time is passing.

The music stops, the clocks wind down. The young grow old, the children die. Time is passing: Tomorrow is no nearer.

Haldeen Braddy

SourceLicence:Public domain (US, unrenewed)

Mood:: Anxious
Topics:: wind, fire, soldier, time

What is this poem about?

Summary

Braddy's poem is built on a cruel paradox: time keeps moving, yet nothing improves. The refrain "Tomorrow is no nearer" returns again and again, and it works like a stuck clock, a promise of relief that stays permanently out of reach. Even "Today is very long," a line that makes the present feel like something to be endured rather than lived.

The images around that refrain paint a world in collapse. Soldiers march up the avenues until their world "becomes the day," fire spreads across the earth, and the land is described as dying. Animals are driven from the jungle and swamp, the sun is "too bright," the moon is hidden by heavy clouds. The poem never names a specific war or place, so the dread feels general, almost universal.

The speaker sounds weary and resigned rather than angry. Nobody protests; the wind simply whispers the message. By the end, the music stops, the clocks wind down, and the children die, leaving a mood of bleak, quiet hopelessness.

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