We're Late
We're Late - meaning Summary
Time Without Measure
Auden’s short lyric argues that conventional clocks and rituals cannot capture human time or purpose. The living ask questions about worth, honor and the meaning of events, seeking reasons for when to act or pray. The dead, in contrast, only register factually "how." The poem closes by saying death remains mysterious: neither Death nor the living fully comprehend what happens when life ends.
Read Complete AnalysesClocks cannot tell our time of day For what event to pray Because we have no time, because We have no time until We know what time we fill, Why time is other than time was. Nor can our question satisfy The answer in the statue's eye: Only the living ask whose brow May wear the Roman laurel now; The dead say only how. What happens to the living when we die? Death is not understood by Death; nor You, nor I.
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