The Summer Day

Mary Oliver

1935 to 2019

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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into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
which is what I have been doing all day.
with your one wild and precious life?
This grasshopper, I mean—
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down—
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
Who made the world?
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Who made the grasshopper?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.