To One in Bedlam

Ernest Dowson

1867 to 1900

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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With their stupidity! Know they what dreams divine
And make his melancholy germane to the stars'?
Thy moon-kissed roses seem: better than love or sleep,
Pedant and pitiful. O, how his rapt gaze wars
Surely he hath his posies, which they tear and twine;
O lamentable brother! if those pity thee,
All their days, vanity? Better than mortal flowers,
The star-crowned solitude of thine oblivious hours!
Am I not fain of all thy lone eyes promise me;
Those scentless wisps of straw that, miserable, line
With delicate, mad hands, behind his sordid bars,
His strait, caged universe, whereat the dull world stares.
Half a fool's kingdom, far from men who sow and reap,
Lift his long, laughing reveries like enchanted wine,