The Send-Off

Wilfred Owen

1893 to 1918

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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Sorry to miss them from the upland camp.
Shall they return to beatings of great bells
And lined the train with faces grimly gay.
Down the close, darkening lanes they sang their way
May creep back, silent, to still village wells
We never heard to which front these were sent.
To the siding-shed,
Up half-known roads.
Nor there if they yet mock what women meant
Then, unmoved, signals nodded, and a lamp
Dull porters watched them, and a casual tramp
In wild trainloads?
A few, a few, too few for drums and yells,
They were not ours:
Who gave them flowers.
So secretly, like wrongs hushed-up, they went.
Stood staring hard,
As men's are, dead.
Winked to the guard.
Their breasts were stuck all white with wreath and spray