Life Is Too Short
Life is too short for any vain regretting;Let dead delight bury its dead, I say,And let us go upon our way forgettingThe joys and sorrows of each yesterdayBetween the swift sun's rising and its settingWe have no time for useless tears or fretting:Life is too short.
Life is too short for any bitter feeling;Time is the best avenger if we wait;The years speed by, and on their wings bear healing;We have no room for anything like hate.This solemn truth the low mounds seem revealingThat thick and fast about our feet are stealing:Life is too short.
Life is too short for aught but high endeavor--Too short for spite, but long enough for love.And love lives on forever and forever;It links the worlds that circle on above:'Tis God's first law, the universe's lever.In His vast realm the radiant souls sigh never"Life is too short."
Words in this poem
- aught n.
- Property; possession. [AS. , fr. agan to own, p. p. ahte.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Life Is Too Short is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems of Passion, Project Gutenberg ebook #16776; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Life Is Too Short, in Poems of Passion (1883), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16776, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/wilcox-passion/life-is-too-short.html, id L22195.
Form and metre
Life Is Too Short is 21 lines in 3 stanzas of 7 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABABAA- regrettingA · sayB · forgettingA · yesterdayB · settingA · frettingA · short
- 2 ABABAA- feelingA · waitB · healingA · hateB · revealingA · stealingA · short
- 3 ABABAA- endeavorA · loveB · foreverA · aboveB · leverA · neverA · short
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Life is too short for any vain regretting; | 11 | ·····/˘·˘/˘ |
| Let dead delight bury its dead, I say, | 10 | ··˘//˘···· |
| And let us go upon our way forgetting | 11 | ······/·˘/˘ |
| The joys and sorrows of each yesterday | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Between the swift sun's rising and its setting | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| We have no time for useless tears or fretting: | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| Life is too short. | 4 | ···· |
| Life is too short for any bitter feeling; | 11 | ·····/˘/˘/˘ |
| Time is the best avenger if we wait; | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| The years speed by, and on their wings bear healing; | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| We have no room for anything like hate. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| This solemn truth the low mounds seem revealing | 11 | ·/˘·····˘/˘ |
| That thick and fast about our feet are stealing: | 11 | ······/··/˘ |
| Life is too short. | 4 | ···· |
| Life is too short for aught but high endeavor-- | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| Too short for spite, but long enough for love. | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| And love lives on forever and forever; | 11 | ····˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| It links the worlds that circle on above: | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| 'Tis God's first law, the universe's lever. | 11 | ·····/˘·˘/˘ |
| In His vast realm the radiant souls sigh never | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| "Life is too short." | 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.