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The watch is long betimes and late, The prize is slow to win.
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“The watch is long betimes and late, The prize is slow to win.”

Christina Rossetti

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Source
Advent — Christina Rossetti
Date
1862
Meaning

Meaning of “The watch is long betimes and late, The…”

The devotional poem acknowledges prolonged waiting and delayed fulfillment directly, making patience meaningful precisely because the hoped-for result is slow.

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Where does it come from?

‘Advent,’ second stanza, in Goblin Market, The Prince's Progress, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg #16950. ‘The watch is long betimes and late, / The prize is slow to win’ belongs to Rossetti's explicitly Christian devotional waiting; later stanzas name Christ and Jesus Christ directly. It is devotional poetry rather than a secular guarantee that persistence produces a reward.

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Courage Quotes About Acting Despite FearHope Quotes About Possibility in Uncertain TimesInspirational Quotes About Hope, Courage & PossibilityMotivational Quotes for Action, Effort & PersistenceNever Give UpPatiencePerseverance Quotes About Sustained EffortPositive Quotes About a Constructive OutlookResilience Quotes About Recovery & AdaptationShortStrengthSpiritual
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Hope is the bird with its dim sensations; The shell that keeps it alive is Patience.
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“Hope is the bird with its dim sensations; The shell that keeps it alive is Patience.”

George MacDonald · The Poetical Works of George MacDonald — Volume II · 1893
Meaning & context

MacDonald pictures patience as the protective structure around hope: hope may begin weakly and imperfectly, while patience gives it time to mature rather than demanding immediate proof.

Source details

“Hope and Patience,” in The Poetical Works of George MacDonald in Two Volumes, Volume II (1893), Project Gutenberg #9984. The bird-and-shell image is a poetic metaphor rather than a literal psychological model.

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If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?
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“If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?”

Percy Bysshe Shelley · Ode to the West Wind · 1820
Meaning & context

The seasonal image turns hardship into a temporary phase: decline can contain the possibility of renewal even when that renewal is not yet visible.

Source details

Final line of Ode to the West Wind; the changing seasons become a metaphor for historical and personal renewal.

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