Victory comes late
Victory comes late,And is held low to freezing lipsToo rapt with frostTo take it.How sweet it would have tasted,Just a drop!Was God so economical?His table 's spread too high for usUnless we dine on tip-toe.Crumbs fit such little mouths,Cherries suit robins;The eagle's golden breakfastStrangles them.God keeps his oath to sparrows,Who of little loveKnow how to starve!
Words in this poem
- rapt n.
- An ecstasy; a trance. Bp. Morton. [From F. rapt abduction, rape, L. raptus, fr. rapere to seize and carry off, to transport; or fr. E. rapt, a. See Rapt, a., and Rapid.]
- dine v. i.
- To eat the principal regular meal of the day; to take dinner. [F. dîner, OF. disner, LL. disnare, contr. fr. an assumed disjunare; dis- + an assumed junare (OF. juner) to fast, for L. jejunare, fr. jejunus fasting. See Jeju]
- strangles n.
- A disease in horses and swine, in which the upper part of the throat, or groups of lymphatic glands elsewhere, swells.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Victory comes late is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete, Project Gutenberg ebook #12242; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Emily Dickinson, Victory comes late, in Poems (1890–1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12242, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dickinson-poems/victory-comes-late.html, id L18946.
Form and metre
Victory comes late is 16 lines in a single stanza.
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.
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Victory comes late, | 5 | /˘˘·· |
| And is held low to freezing lips | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Too rapt with frost | 4 | ···· |
| To take it. | 3 | ··· |
| How sweet it would have tasted, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Just a drop! | 3 | ··· |
| Was God so economical? | 8 | ····˘/˘˘ |
| His table 's spread too high for us | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| Unless we dine on tip-toe. | 7 | ······· |
| Crumbs fit such little mouths, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Cherries suit robins; | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
| The eagle's golden breakfast | 7 | ·/˘/˘/˘ |
| Strangles them. | 3 | /˘· |
| God keeps his oath to sparrows, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Who of little love | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Know how to starve! | 4 | ···· |
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.