Break of Day in the Trenches
Isaac Rosenberg
1890 to 1918
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. Take your time, enjoy the process, and discover how the poet's words come together to create something truly beautiful.
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What do you see in our eyes
Droll rat, they would shoot you if they knew
Drop, and are ever dropping;
It seems you inwardly grin as you pass
The torn fields of France.
It is the same old druid Time as ever,
But mine in my ear is safe—
Less chanced than you for life,
The darkness crumbles away.
Strong eyes, fine limbs, haughty athletes,
A queer sardonic rat,
Only a live thing leaps my hand,
You will do the same to a German
Just a little white with the dust.
Poppies whose roots are in man's veins
Hurled through still heavens?
As I pull the parapet's poppy
Soon, no doubt, if it be your pleasure
Bonds to the whims of murder,
To stick behind my ear.
At the shrieking iron and flame
Now you have touched this English hand
What quaver—what heart aghast?
Your cosmopolitan sympathies.
Sprawled in the bowels of the earth,
To cross the sleeping green between.