Song of Palms

Arthur O'Shaughnessy

1844 to 1881

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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And its long luxuriant thought
Dwelling there for years and years, 
Long red reaches of the cane, 
Under blue unbroken skies,
Rapturous souls of perfume, hurled 
Waving from green zone to zone,
Growing, flowering, and flying, 
Binding fern and coco-tree, 
Trackless, untraversed, unknown, 
Who can say what thing it bears? 
And ripe under-worlds deliver 
Wave-like, palm by palm is stirred, 
All one brotherhood hath wrought, 
Hold the enchanted secret theirs:
While a single vast liana
In the wide leaves' restless world.
Lofty palm to palm hath taught, 
Living in each boundless place, 
Is the country of the palm, 
Over wonders of its own;
And the flower in soft explosion 
Fig-tree, buttress-tree, banana,
Mysteries in many a shade,
With the flower hath been wed.
And the great night comes replying.
Yellow winding water-lane, 
Many thousand years have been, 
Crossing forest and savannah,
Changeless through the centuries.
And the sun alone hath seen,
But the crimson bird hath fed 
Like a high and radiant ocean,
All the fair palm world in motion; 
Lisp and murmur back again, 
And the day sings one rich word, 
Dwarf cane and tall marití.
Blazing bird and blooming flower,
With its mate of equal red,
Up to where green oceans quiver 
Verdant isle and amber river, 
Crowned with sunset and sunrise, 
Hollow haunt and hidden bower
Closed alike to sun and shower.
Mighty, luminous, and calm
And the bird sings to the bird, 
Who is ruler of each race
Glowing, revelling, and dying?
Life and death and dream have made