The Joys Of The Road
Bliss Carman
1861 to 1929
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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A scrap of gossip at the ferry;
When the stealthy sad-heart leaves go home;
And a hope to make the day go through,—
To wake me up at the voice of a bird;
In early fall, when the wind walks too;
And oh, the joy that is never won,
The outward eye, the quiet will,
Now the joys of the road are chiefly these:
Another to sleep with, and a third
The palish asters along the wood,—
And two brown arms at the journey's end!
From purple glory to scarlet pomp;
Alluring up and enticing down
Who never defers and never demands,
And the striding heart from hill to hill;
An open hand, an easy shoe,
The sound of the hollow sea's release
But, smiling, takes the world in his hands,—
For him who travels without a load.
The silent fleck of the cold new moon;
A comrade neither glum nor merry,
The cobweb bloom on the yellow quince;
Seeing it good as when God first saw
With only another league to wend;
A lyric touch of solitude;
From stormy tumult to starry peace;
By marsh and tide, by meadow and stream,
A will-o'-the-wind, a light-o'-dream,
A shadowy highway cool and brown,
And gave it the weight of his will for law.
A vagrant's morning wide and blue,
A crimson touch on the hard-wood trees;
The tempter apple over the fence;
These are the joys of the open road—
The broad gold wake of the afternoon;
The racy smell of the forest loam,
But follows and follows the journeying sun,
From rippled water to dappled swamp,