The Explanation
Rudyard Kipling
1865 to 1936
Drag the words to the correct places to complete the poem. To reset the game, click on the "Reset Game" button located below the poem. This will clear all the words you've placed in the blanks, returning them to the word bank and resetting the poem to its original state with empty blanks.
Love and Death once ceased their strife
At the ______ of Man's Life.
Called for wine, and threw — alas! —
Each his quiver on the grass.
When the ______ was o'er they found
Mingled arrows strewed the ground.
______ they gathered then
Each the loves and lives of men.
Ah, the fateful dawn deceived!
Mingled arrows each one sheaved;
Death's dread armoury was stored
With the shafts he ______ abhorred;
Love's light quiver groaned beneath
Venom-headed darts of Death.
Thus it was they wrought our woe
At the ______ long ago.
Tell me, do our masters know,
Loosing ______ as they fly,
Old men love while young men die?