Life
Anna Lætitia Barbauld
1743 to 1825
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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Perhaps 't will cost a sigh, a tear;
From whence thy essence came,
Ah tell where I must seek this compound I?
Say not Good night, but in some brighter clime
But know that thou and I must part;
Life! I know not what thou art,
I own to me's a secret yet.
Wait, like some spell-bound knight,
As all that then remains of me.
From matter's base encumbering weed?
Choose thine own time;
To the vast ocean of empyreal flame,
Life! we've been long together,
O say what art thou, when no more thou 'rt thee?
Or dost thou, hid from sight,
Where bend unseen thy trackless course,
Where'er they lay these limbs, this head,
O whither, whither dost thou fly,
Then steal away, give little warning,
To break thy trance and reassume thy power?
Bid me Good morning.
But this I know, when thou art fled,
Through blank oblivious years th' appointed hour,
And when, or how, or where we met,
Yet canst thou without thought or feeling be?
No clod so valueless shall be,
'Tis hard to part when friends are dear;
Through pleasant and through cloudy weather;
And in this strange divorce,
Dost thou thy flight pursue, when freed