I Am!
John Clare
1793 to 1864
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.
Easy Mode - Auto check enabled
They rise and vanish in oblivious host,
I am—yet what I am none cares or knows;
Where there is neither sense of life or joys,
Are strange—nay, rather, stranger than the rest.
I am the self-consumer of my woes—
I long for scenes where man hath never trod
Untroubling and untroubled where I lie
Even the dearest that I loved the best
The grass below—above the vaulted sky.
My friends forsake me like a memory lost:
There to abide with my Creator, God,
Into the living sea of waking dreams,
A place where woman never smiled or wept
And yet I am, and live—like vapours tossed
But the vast shipwreck of my life's esteems;
Into the nothingness of scorn and noise,
And sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept,
Like shadows in love's frenzied stifled throes