Lyric Poem · Nature

How Soon Hath Time

by John Milton

Reading room

1How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth,

2Stoln on his wing my three and twentieth year!

3My hasting days fly on wtih full career,

4But my late spring no bud or blossom shew'th.

5Perhaps my semblance might deceive the truth,

6That I to manhood am arrived so near,

7And inward ripeness doth much less appear,

8That some more timely-happy spirits endu'th.

9Yet be it less or more, or soon or slow,

10It shall be still in strictest measure even

11To that same lot, however mean or high,

12Toward which Time leads me, and the will of Heaven;

13All is, if I have grace to use it so,

14As ever in my great Taskmaster's eye.

Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.

Tip: click any line number to copy a ready-made citation for that line.

“How Soon Hath Time” by John Milton — quilloak.com/poems/how-soon-hath-time

Quick facts

Poem: How Soon Hath Time
Poet: John Milton
Length: 14 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: Nature, Spring, Childhood

Craft notes

How this poem works

Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.

Shape: 14 lines · one 14-line stanza
Line length: Mostly 10-syllable lines (pentameter length).

The poem’s silhouette — approximate syllables per line, measured from the text above. Even bars mean a measured line; ragged bars mean the poem sets its own widths.

Want the rules this form is measured against? Read what makes a lyric poem, or run your own draft through the form checker to see the same measurements on your lines. How we measure · Report a mistake

Text, source & rights

A traceable edition

Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.

Author record: John Milton1608–1674
Source record: PoetryDBHow Soon Hath Time by john-milton, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision: Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record: Not recorded in the imported source
Text fingerprint: SHA-256 88eea2a6785738c0…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

Jurisdiction-specific, never a worldwide claimRights policy Report a text or rights issue

Lyric Poem Nature Spring Childhood

Keep reading

She Walks in Beauty

Lord Byron · 1814

She walks in beauty, like the nightOf cloudless climes and starry skies;And all that's best of dark and bright

18 lines · lyric

Love's Philosophy

Percy Bysshe Shelley · 1819

The fountains mingle with the riverAnd the rivers with the ocean,The winds of heaven mix for ever

16 lines · lyric

When You Are Old

W. B. Yeats · 1893

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,And nodding by the fire, take down this book,And slowly read, and dream of the soft look

12 lines · lyric

More nature poems →