Too Late
Each on his own strict line we move,And some find death ere they find love;So far apart their lives are thrownFrom the twin soul that halves their own.
And sometimes, by still harder fate,The lovers meet, but meet too late.--Thy heart is mine! True, true! ah, true!--Then, love, thy hand! Ah, no! adieu!
About this text
Too Late is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #54985; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Matthew Arnold, Too Late, in Poems (1849–1867), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #54985, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/arnold-poems/too-late.html, id L07014.
Form and metre
Too Late is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AABB moveA · loveA · thrownB · ownB
- 2 AABB fateA · lateA · trueB · adieuB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Each on his own strict line we move, | 8 | ········ |
| And some find death ere they find love; | 8 | ········ |
| So far apart their lives are thrown | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| From the twin soul that halves their own. | 8 | ········ |
| And sometimes, by still harder fate, | 8 | ·/···/˘· |
| The lovers meet, but meet too late. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| --Thy heart is mine! True, true! ah, true! | 8 | ········ |
| --Then, love, thy hand! Ah, no! adieu! | 8 | ······˘/ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.