I Had No Time to Hate, Because
I Had No Time to Hate, Because - meaning Summary
Priorities Shaped by Brevity
The speaker reflects on limited time and mortality, arguing that life’s briefness and the inevitability of death make sustained hatred impossible. With only finite energy, the speaker chooses the modest, deliberate work of love as a more practical and meaningful use of time. The poem presents a pragmatic ethic: given constraints, small acts of care matter more than prolonged enmity, reframing love as chosen labor rather than grand sentiment.
Read Complete AnalysesI had no time to hate, because The grave would hinder me, And life was not so ample I Could finish enmity. Nor had I time to love, but since Some industry must be, The little toil of love, I thought, Was large enough for me.
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