The Carpenter's Son
A.E.Housman
1859 to 1936
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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"Now, you see, they hang me high,
Live, lads, and I will die."
Stop to shake their fists and curse;
"Make some day a decent end,
Walk henceforth in other ways;
Had I but left ill alone."
Fare you well, for ill fare I:
All the same's the luck we prove,
"Here hang I, and right and left
Comrades all, leave ill alone."
Had I stuck to plane and adze,
Shrewder fellows than your friend.
Never dangled on my own,
Fare you well, for ill fare I:
"Oh, at home had I but stayed
Though the midmost hangs for love."
"Here the hangman stops his cart:
Live, lads, and I will die."
Gallows-trees for other chaps,
So 'tis come from ill to worse."
Now the best of friends must part.
'Prenticed to my father's trade,
"Comrades all, that stand and gaze,
And the people passing by
"Then I might have built perhaps
I had not been lost, my lads."
See my neck and save your own:
Two poor fellows hang for theft: