1. Late, late, so late! and dark the night and chill!
Late, late, so late! but we can enter still.
Too late, too late, ye cannot enter now;
Too late, too late, ye cannot enter now.
2. No light had we; for that we do repent,
And learning this, the Bridegroom will relent.
Too late, too late, ye cannot enter now;
Too late, too late, ye cannot enter now.
3. No light, so late, and dark and chill the night,
O let us in that we may find the light.
Too late, too late, ye cannot enter now;
Too late, too late, ye cannot enter now.
Source: The New Christian Hymnal #205
Tennyson, Alfred, Lord, son of the Rev. G. C. Tennyson, Rector of Somersby, Lincolnshire, was born at Somersby, Aug. 6, 1809; educated at Trinity College, Cambridge; appointed Poet Laureate in 1850, and raised to the Peerage in 1884. Although Lord Tennyson has not written any hymns, extracts from his poems are sometimes used as such, as "Strong Son of God, immortal Love" (Faith in the Son of God), from the Introduction to his In Memoriam, 1850; the well-known "Too late, too late, ye cannot enter now," and others. The former is sometimes given as "Spirit of immortal Love," and again as "Eternal God, immortal Love."
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)
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