To One in Bedlam
Ernest Dowson
1867 to 1900
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.
With delicate, mad hands, behind his sordid bars,
Surely ______ hath his posies, which they tear and twine;
Those ______ wisps of straw that, miserable, line
His strait, caged universe, whereat the dull world stares.
Pedant and pitiful. O, ______ his rapt gaze wars
With their stupidity! Know they ______ dreams divine
Lift his long, laughing reveries like enchanted wine,
And make his melancholy germane to the stars'?
O ______ brother! if those pity thee,
Am I not fain ______ all thy lone eyes promise me;
Half a fool's kingdom, far from men who sow and reap,
All their days, vanity? Better than mortal flowers,
Thy moon-kissed roses seem: ______ than love or sleep,
The star-crowned solitude of thine ______ hours!