The Darkling Thrush

Thomas Hardy

1840 to 1928

Poem Image
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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Was written on terrestrial things
Like strings of broken lyres,
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,
In a full-hearted evensong
The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
The Century's corpse outleant,
And every spirit upon earth
Of such ecstatic sound
And Winter's dregs made desolate
Upon the growing gloom.
So little cause for carolings
Had sought their household fires.
That I could think there trembled through
When Frost was spectre-grey,
In blast-beruffled plume,
His happy good-night air
Was shrunken hard and dry,
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
Afar or nigh around,
The land's sharp features seemed to be
I leant upon a coppice gate
The weakening eye of day.
Of joy illimited;
At once a voice arose among
Seemed fervourless as I.
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
The bleak twigs overhead
His crypt the cloudy canopy,
The wind his death-lament.
And I was unaware.
And all mankind that haunted nigh
The ancient pulse of germ and birth