It Was Too Late for Man

It Was Too Late for Man - fact Summary

First Printed 1896

This short Dickinson lyric was first published in 1896 in the collection Poems by Emily Dickinson. It presents a paradox of timing—too late for human effort yet early for God—so human impotence gives way to prayer and a hospitable divine presence. Noting the 1896 publication places the poem within the later print history that brought Dickinson’s private, theological meditations to a wider Victorian readership.