Is It Worth While?
Joaquin Miller
1837 to 1913
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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Look at the skeletons down by his hearthstone;
In blackness of heart?—that we war to the knife?
And mightier far for woe than for weal.
Some poor fellow down into the dust?
God pardon us all for the triumphs we feel
Humbled, indeed, down into the dust.
Were it not well, in this brief little journey
Some poor fellow-mortal has wrung from it all?
Oh! could you look into his life's broken measure—
All of us together, like leaves in a gust,
Why should we envy a moment of pleasure
God pity us all in our pitiful strife.
Look at the roses saluting each other;
Is it worth while that we jeer at each other
Look at his heart hung with crape like a pall;
Pierced to the heart: words are keener than steel,
God pity us all! Time too soon will tumble
Is it worth while that we battle to humble
When a fellow goes down 'neath his load on the heather,
Is it worth while that we jostle a brother,
Look at the herds all at peace on the plain—
I know you would go and say tenderly, lowly,
On over the isthmus, down into the tide,
Look at the dregs—at the wormwood and gall—
Ere folding the hands to be and abide
Bearing his load on the rough road of life?
Look at his cares in their merciless sway,
Man, and man only, makes war on his brother,
Forever and aye in dust at his side?
We give him a fish instead of a serpent,
Lo! Lethe is washing the blackness away.
Brother—my brother, for aye and for aye,
And dotes in his heart on his peril and pain—
God pity us all as we jostle each other;
Shamed by the brutes that go down on the plain.