A Life-Tomb
Arthur O'Shaughnessy
1844 to 1881
Track 1
Reconstruct the poem by dragging each line into its correct position. Your goal is to reassemble the original poem as accurately as possible. As you move the lines, you'll see whether your arrangement is correct, helping you explore the poem's flow and meaning. You can also print out the jumbled poem to cut up and reassemble in the classroom. Either way, take your time, enjoy the process, and discover how the poet's words come together to create something truly beautiful.
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The heart with tremulous stir
Lives a moment and then dies.
Right fair in the heart's past,
All the purple nights and days
Of things the heart remembers
Am I here alive in her tomb?—
The flame in famished eyes
With Her touch behind panel and door
On slowly dying embers
To sit with dull eyes cast
She slew passing; or, half sweet,
And a love-glow fills the gloom;
From the shadows in the room,
And her footfalls under the floor;
Sown with flowers by her feet;
With some remnant of her sighs.
At some dream-sight of her;
Ah fain am I still to track
The house is haunted and rife
And to gather, following back,
As from dim and distant eyes,
—Till tones, that seem to start
And her soul seems to look out
And a shade of lips to pout
And to walk along the ways
Move round about the heart,
And often too, in the night,
—Is She here dead in my life?
O the house is filled with gloom:
Re-kindles an old delight