As the Time Draws Nigh
As the Time Draws Nigh - meaning Summary
Facing Mortality and Acceptance
The poem presents a speaker sensing an approaching, undefined end and responding with calm resolve. He imagines traveling and singing, yet admits his voice could stop unexpectedly. Rather than panic, the speaker questions the value of books and chants, then affirms that simply having appeared as a soul is sufficient. The tone moves from dread to quiet acceptance of existence and the limited but meaningful nature of life and art.
Read Complete Analyses1 AS the time draws nigh, glooming, a cloud, A dread beyond, of I know not what, darkens me. I shall go forth, I shall traverse The States awhile—but I cannot tell whither or how long; Perhaps soon, some day or night while I am singing, my voice will suddenly cease. 2 O book, O chants! must all then amount to but this? Must we barely arrive at this beginning of us?... And yet it is enough, O soul! O soul! we have positively appear’d—that is enough.
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