"The game is never lost till won"
About this Quote
A line like "The game is never lost till won" sounds like a motivational poster until you notice the sly grammatical trap. Crabbe flips the expected proverb ("never won till it's over") into a paradox that forces you to reread. The effect is moral pressure disguised as wordplay: if the game is only "lost" at the moment it is "won", then defeat is never a settled fact while you still have breath, agency, or time. It turns resignation into a kind of bad grammar.
That twist fits Crabbe's larger project. He was an anti-Romantic poet of hard edges, famous for writing about ordinary people without pastoral haze. In that world, hope isn't a soaring ideal; it's a stubborn habit, a refusal to let circumstance have the last word. The phrase "the game" also matters. It's colloquial, almost sporting, which keeps the sentiment from turning lofty. Life is framed as a contest of stamina and nerve, not destiny or divine plan.
The subtext is less "keep believing" than "don't grant the verdict early". Crabbe is policing the moment we emotionally cash out, the instant we call something finished because it's painful to keep trying. The line works because it's simultaneously bracing and faintly cynical: it admits that life can feel like a rigged match, yet insists you play to the whistle. In an era of revolutions, war, and rapid social change, that kind of linguistic grit reads as survival advice for people who don't have the luxury of romantic endings.
That twist fits Crabbe's larger project. He was an anti-Romantic poet of hard edges, famous for writing about ordinary people without pastoral haze. In that world, hope isn't a soaring ideal; it's a stubborn habit, a refusal to let circumstance have the last word. The phrase "the game" also matters. It's colloquial, almost sporting, which keeps the sentiment from turning lofty. Life is framed as a contest of stamina and nerve, not destiny or divine plan.
The subtext is less "keep believing" than "don't grant the verdict early". Crabbe is policing the moment we emotionally cash out, the instant we call something finished because it's painful to keep trying. The line works because it's simultaneously bracing and faintly cynical: it admits that life can feel like a rigged match, yet insists you play to the whistle. In an era of revolutions, war, and rapid social change, that kind of linguistic grit reads as survival advice for people who don't have the luxury of romantic endings.
Quote Details
| Topic | Never Give Up |
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