The Full Text of “After”
1A little time for laughter,
2A little time to sing,
3A little time to kiss and cling,
4And no more kissing after.
5A little while for scheming
6Love's unperfected schemes;
7A little time for golden dreams,
8Then no more any dreaming.
9A little while 'twas given
10To me to have thy love;
11Now, like a ghost, alone I move
12About a ruined heaven.
13A little time for speaking
14Things sweet to say and hear;
15A time to seek, and find thee near,
16Then no more any seeking.
17A little time for saying
18Words the heart breaks to say;
19A short sharp time wherein to pray,
20Then no more need of praying;
21But long, long years to weep in,
22And comprehend the whole
23Great grief that desolates the soul,
24And eternity to sleep in.
The Full Text of “After”
1A little time for laughter,
2A little time to sing,
3A little time to kiss and cling,
4And no more kissing after.
5A little while for scheming
6Love's unperfected schemes;
7A little time for golden dreams,
8Then no more any dreaming.
9A little while 'twas given
10To me to have thy love;
11Now, like a ghost, alone I move
12About a ruined heaven.
13A little time for speaking
14Things sweet to say and hear;
15A time to seek, and find thee near,
16Then no more any seeking.
17A little time for saying
18Words the heart breaks to say;
19A short sharp time wherein to pray,
20Then no more need of praying;
21But long, long years to weep in,
22And comprehend the whole
23Great grief that desolates the soul,
24And eternity to sleep in.
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“After” Introduction
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The Victorian poet Philip Bourke Marston wrote "After" in response to the death of his fiancée, Mary Nesbit, from tuberculosis. The poem reflects Marston's immense grief over a love that ended too soon, as well as his despair at how just long and lonely the future feels in that love's absence. The world feels bereft of joy and hope in the wake of lost love, and the years stretch on and on—ending only with the "eternal" oblivion of death. "After" was published in Marston's second poetry collection, All in All, in 1875, four years after Nesbit's death.
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“After” Summary
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We only had a little while to laugh, sing, kiss, and cuddle, and then there were no more kisses.
We only had a little while for love's imperfect plans and to dream beautiful dreams, and then there were no more dreams.
I only got to have your love for a little while, and now I'm like a ghost haunting heaven's ruins.
We only had a little while to share sweet words with each other, only a little while when I could look for you and find you there beside me, and then there was no more looking for you.
We only had a little while to exchange devastating words and a brief, terrible period of time in which to pray, and then there was no point in praying any longer.
But there will be many years ahead in which to cry and begin to grasp the entirety of the enormous grief that devastates the soul, followed by the endless sleep of death.
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“After” Themes
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Love, Loss, and Grief
"After" ruminates on the intense grief felt for a love that ended too soon. Marston wrote the poem after the sudden death of his fiancée, Mary Nesbit, and the poem reflects his own feelings of shock and despair at this loss. Looking back on their relationship, the speaker realizes how "little" life he got to share with his beloved before she died. Compared to their scant time together, the time he must carry on without her seems to stretch on endlessly—a terrible "after" that will end only when he, too, dies. The poem thus reflects the incredible pain of facing life alone after losing the person with whom you planned to share it.
All the speaker's joy and happiness with the woman he loved seems like a mere blip on the radar now that he must face the rest of his life without her. He lists the things they had only "A little time for": "laughter," "sing[ing]," "kiss[ing]," and cuddling, as well as planning and "dreaming" of their future together. These happy times were abruptly snatched away, and, in hindsight, feel even more fleeting to the speaker in comparison to the years to come. Love makes time fly, the poem suggests, while grief makes it seem to stretch on and on.
Indeed, the speaker feels nothing but dread for the future, which he sees as dismal and filled with pain and longing. These years will contain "no more kissing," "dreaming," or "seeking," and he will "move [like a ghost] / About a ruined heaven." In other words, his memories of sweet, fulfilling times now just bring him misery, since he will never again be able to speak to or hold his love. Instead, he must face the "long, long years" that loom ahead: years of crying and slowly beginning to "comprehend the whole / Great grief that desolates the soul." That is, he’ll spend the rest of his life coming to understand exactly what he lost, feeling its absence in every nook and cranny of his life. By the time he dies, it seems he'll almost welcome that "eternity to sleep in"—the oblivion of death—since at least then he won't have to feel this pain anymore.
The poem offers no hope or silver lining; the speaker doesn't imagine that he will someday heal from this wound and create a new life for himself. The poem's despairing tone rather reflects the speaker's (and the poet's) experience of grief, which is so great it leaves no room for imagining ever feeling otherwise.
- See where this theme is active in the poem.
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Time and Mortality
"After" draws on Marston's personal experience of losing the woman he loved while also mourning the relentless passage of time in general. As the speaker meditates on the empty expanse of years ahead of him before he follows his beloved to the grave, the poem becomes a lament for human mortality. Life feels much too short, the poem implies, when compared to the "eternity" of death.
Now that his beloved has died, the speaker seems to almost welcome this endless "sleep" that awaits him, since at least then he won't be saddled with this heavy grief any longer. But though the speaker's pain is specific, it also reflects a broader reality: everyone has only a "little time" on earth, and life is not that long in the grand scheme of things. Had the speaker and his beloved lived their whole lives together before dying, they still, relatively speaking, would have only had "A little time for laughter, / A little time to sing," and so on. Everyone will invariably spend more time not "kissing" and "scheming" and "dreaming" than they will spend actually doing these things. While life's little moments of joy and tenderness are fleeting, death goes on forever.
"After" is thus a lament not just for the speaker’s beloved, but for human beings in general, each of whom, the poem suggests, must eventually face the "long" expanse of emptiness that awaits them.
- See where this theme is active in the poem.
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “After”
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Lines 1-4
A little time for laughter,
A little time to sing,
A little time to kiss and cling,
And no more kissing after.Marston wrote "After" in response to losing his fiancée, Mary Nesbit, to tuberculosis. Her sudden death came as a shock to him, and the poem reflects his overwhelming feelings of grief.
While the poem's first stanza doesn't reference any of this context explicitly, it quickly hints that the speaker is talking about the loss of a loved one. He begins the poem by listing some happy experiences that he had only "A little time for" with this person: laughter, singing, kissing, and "cling[ing]."
The anaphora (the repetition of "A little time") of this list emphasizes how short-lived their relationship was. There was barely any "time" to be happily in love before something broke the couple apart. Again, in Marston's real life, this event was Nesbit's death. For now, however, the poem itself doesn't specify whether this beloved has passed away or simply left the speaker.
What's clear is that their love story was cut tragically short, in the speaker's mind, and now there will be "no more kissing." Polyptoton (the repetition of "kiss"/"kissing") highlights this loss of physical affection in particular, though of course it is implied that all these things—the laughter and merriment—have disappeared as well.
The sonic devices of these lines make them sound sweet and pleasant, evoking the intense delight that this love brought the speaker. For example, note the alliteration of "little" and "laughter," or of "kiss" and "cling." There's assonance here as well ("little," "kiss," "cling"), as well as lots of more general consonance:
A little time for laughter,
A little time to sing,
A little time to kiss and cling,
And no more kissing after.In addition to making the poem sound more lyrical and memorable, all these sonic devices also make the poem's lines roll quickly off the tongue—subtly evoking the brevity of this couple's happiness.
This opening stanza establishes the poem's form as well:
- "After" is made up of quatrains (four-line stanzas), and the first, third, and fourth lines of each stanza are written in iambic tetrameter. This means that they have four iambs, poetic feet with two syllables that follow an unstressed-stressed rhythm: da-DUM.
- The first and last lines of each stanza are catalectic, however, meaning they're missing a final stressed syllable. As a result, these lines end abruptly—much like the speaker's love story.
- The third line of each stanza uses iambic trimeter, meaning there are only three feet instead of four. This speeds up each stanza further still.
Here are lines 1-4 scanned to illustrate all this in action:
A lit- | tle time | for laugh- | ter,
A lit- | tle time | to sing,
A lit- | tle time | to kiss | and cling,
And no | more kis- | sing af- | ter.The poem also follows a simple ABBA rhyme scheme, in which the first and last lines of each stanza form a rhyme ("laughter"/"after") and the middle two lines form another ("sing"/"cling"). The couplet created by those middle lines might evoke the pairing of the speaker and his beloved.
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Lines 5-8
A little while for scheming
Love's unperfected schemes;
A little time for golden dreams,
Then no more any dreaming. -
Lines 9-12
A little while 'twas given
To me to have thy love;
Now, like a ghost, alone I move
About a ruined heaven. -
Lines 13-16
A little time for speaking
Things sweet to say and hear;
A time to seek, and find thee near,
Then no more any seeking. -
Lines 17-20
A little time for saying
Words the heart breaks to say;
A short sharp time wherein to pray,
Then no more need of praying; -
Lines 21-24
But long, long years to weep in,
And comprehend the whole
Great grief that desolates the soul,
And eternity to sleep in.
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“After” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Anaphora
Anaphora plays a major role in "After." In the first three lines, for example, the speaker repeats the opening phrase "A little time":
A little time for laughter,
A little time to sing,
A little time to kiss and clingThis insistent repetition, which will pop up in every stanza except the last, calls attention to the fact that the speaker got far too "little time" with his beloved. Again and again, the speaker returns to this phrase (or a slight variation on it), hammering home the fact that their love and happiness were much too brief, snatched away far too soon. The anaphora makes the poem sound more intense, in turn evoking the immensity of the speaker's immense pain.
The poem is marked by broader parallelism as well. For example, the speaker repeats the phrase "And no more"/"Then no more" at the ends of several stanzas. Moreover, each stanza generally follows the same format: the speaker mentions some things he got only a "little" time/while for, then closes by saying that such things are all over.
As with its use of anaphora, all this repetitive phrasing helps to convey the overwhelming nature of the speaker's grief. His love may have lasted only a "little while," but his agony seems to stretch on and on, confronting him everywhere he looks.
- See where this poetic device appears in the poem.
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Polyptoton
- See where this poetic device appears in the poem.
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Alliteration
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Metaphor
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"After" Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- 'Twas
- Thy
- Thee
- Wherein
- Desolates
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A contraction of the words "It was."
- See where this vocabulary word appears in the poem.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “After”
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Form
"After" is made up of 24 lines arranged into six quatrains (four-line stanzas), which follow a set meter and rhyme scheme. The poem thus has a steady form throughout.
Each quatrain essentially presents a version of the same idea over and over again: the speaker didn't get enough time with his beloved. The poem's predictable form echoes the idea that there is nothing new to look forward to now that she is gone: life will go on in this way, with "long, long years" of grieving, and then it will end.
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Meter
For the most part, "After" is written in iambic tetrameter. This means that lines contain four iambs: poetic feet with two syllables that follow an unstressed-stressed pattern (da-DUM).
The first and last lines of each stanza are catalectic, however, meaning they're missing their final, stressed syllables. As a result, they sound as if they've been cut off prematurely (much like the speaker's love!). The second line of each stanza is also in trimeter, rather than tetrameter, and contains three iambs instead of four. Here's what the first stanza looks like scanned:
A lit- | tle time | for laugh- | ter,
A lit- | tle time | to sing,
A lit- | tle time | to kiss | and cling,
And no | more kiss- | ing af- | ter.The regular iambic meter evokes the steady march of time. The use of catalexis and a single line of trimeter in each stanza, meanwhile, mimics the way that the speaker's love was abruptly cut short.
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Rhyme Scheme
The poem follows a simple ABBA rhyme scheme: the first and last lines of each stanza rhyme with each other, as do the second and fourth. Combined with the poem's use of regular meter, this tight rhyme scheme lends the poem steady, predictable music. The pattern here is reflective of the speaker's relationship as well: the two middle lines of each stanza form a quick couplet that subtly evokes the pairing of the speaker and his beloved. Before the rhyme can linger, however, that A sound butts back in, breaking the couplet up.
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“After” Speaker
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The speaker of "After" can be read as the poet himself: Marston wrote this poem in response to the death of his own beloved, with whom he was engaged to be married. The text itself doesn't offer any real specifics about the speaker, however, never mentioning this person's gender, age, etc. This makes the poem feel more relatable: anyone who has experienced the death of a loved one can see themselves reflected in the speaker's pain.
The only thing that really matters is that the speaker is someone who has lost the person with whom he imagined spending his life. As he faces the years ahead without this person, he imagines nothing but a "grief" so huge and terrible it will completely destroy his "soul." For this reason, he longs to join his beloved in death, where, finally, he will be able to forget the agony of his loss.
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“After” Setting
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"After" takes place sometime "after" the speaker's beloved has died. According to the speaker, this death came all too soon: the couple had only a "little time" together. This was the reality for the poet and his fiancée Mary Nesbit, who died from tuberculosis early in their courtship. The poem also suggests that love and life never feel long enough, however; even decades together may not have felt like more than a "little while" to this speaker.
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Literary and Historical Context of “After”
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Literary Context
Philip Bourke Marston (1850-1887) was an English poet. The son of a prominent dramatist and critic, Marston began writing at a young age and published his first collection, Song-Tide, to critical acclaim when he was just 21. "After" was published in Marston's second collection, All in All, in 1875, following the death of his beloved fiancée Mary Nesbit.
Marston's personal life was filled with tragedy. He lost most of his vision when he was three years old and eventually became fully blind. His mother died shortly before the publication of Song-Tide; later, he also lost both of his sisters, as well as multiple close friends. Such tragedy inevitably found its way into Marston's work.
Indeed, of the collection in which "After" appears, his friend and contemporary William Sharp wrote:
All in All had only a limited success: its sadness was too extreme for the majority of readers, and though, in point of workmanship, it was superior to its predecessor, it was practically voted too gloomy. Some critics went the length of complaining that such a sombre tone as prevailed throughout this volume was either morbid or affected: it is almost needless to say that neither surmise was correct. Irremediable grief, as distinct from more or less placid sorrow, is so rarely experienced by men that it is not strange there should be a tendency to consider it a symptom of weakness or affectation; but if those of this bent of mind will put themselves in the place of Philip Marston—unhappy, often lonely, smitten cruelly by adverse fate, and dwelling continually in blank and terrible darkness—they will not, in all probability, find themselves strongly impelled towards the composition of very joyous verse.
Marston was also close friends with his fellow writers Algernon Charles Swinburne and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Rossetti was the founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, an artistic movement devoted to realism and authenticity, simple yet sensuous language, and religious and moral contemplation. The Pre-Raphaelite influence can be seen in this poem's accessible yet delicate language, as well as its straightforward themes of love, loss, grief, mortality, and death.
Historical Context
Marston wrote "After" in response to the sudden death of Mary Nesbit, to whom he was betrothed, in 1871. Nesbit contracted consumption (now called tuberculosis) early in their courtship, but did not reveal her affliction to Marston until it became apparent she would not recover. They were briefly very happy, and her death came as an enormous blow to Marston.
Before a cure was discovered halfway into the 20th century, tuberculosis was one of the deadliest infectious diseases in history. It is estimated that in the 19th and 20th centuries alone, over a billion people died of this "wasting disease," so called because those afflicted would lose drastic amounts of weight over the course of their illness. During its peak in the 1800s, it was responsible for one in four deaths in England and almost 25 percent of all deaths in Europe.
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More “After” Resources
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External Resources
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The Poem Out Loud — Listen to a recording of Marston's poem.
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The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood — Read about the artistic group whose works inspired Marston.
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Poems of Sorrow and Grieving — Browse the Poetry Foundation's collection of poems dealing with loss.
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Consumption: the Most Feared of Diseases — Read about the disease that killed Marston's fiancée, Mary Nesbit.
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