To an Unborn Pauper Child
Thomas Hardy
1840 to 1928
Drag the words to the correct places to complete the poem. To reset the game, click on the "Reset Game" button located below the poem. This will clear all the words you've placed in the blanks, returning them to the word bank and resetting the poem to its original state with empty blanks.
Breathe not, hid Heart: cease silently,
And though thy birth-hour beckons thee,
Sleep the long sleep:
The Doomsters heap
______ and teens around us here,
And Time-Wraiths turn our ______ to fear.
Hark, how the peoples surge and sigh,
______ laughters fail, and greetings die;
Hopes dwindle; yea,
Faiths ______ away,
Affections and enthusiasms numb:
Thou canst not mend ______ things if thou dost come.
Had I the ear ______ wombed souls
Ere their terrestrial chart unrolls,
And thou ______ free
To cease, or be,
Then would I tell ______ all I know,
And put it to thee: Wilt ______ take Life so?
Vain vow! No hint of mine ______ hence
To theeward fly: to thy locked sense
Explain ______ can
Life's pending plan:
Thou wilt thy ignorant entry ______
Though skies spout fire and blood and nations quake.
______ would I, dear, find some shut plot
Of earth's ______ wold for thee, where not
One tear, one qualm,
______ break the calm.
But I am weak as thou ______ bare;
No man can change the common lot to rare.
Must come and bide. And such are we-
Unreasoning, sanguine, visionary-
That I can hope
Health, love, friends, scope
______ full for thee; can dream thou'lt find
Joys seldom ______ attained by humankind!