I Am!
John Clare
1793 to 1864
Type into the gaps 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, and resetting the poem to its original state with empty blanks. If you prefer to drag and drop words, click the Drag & Drop button below. You can also print out the poem for use in the classroom.
I am—yet what I am none cares or knows;
friends forsake me like a memory lost:
I am self-consumer of my woes—
They rise and vanish in host,
Like shadows in love’s frenzied stifled throes
And I am, and live—like vapours tossed
Into the nothingness scorn and noise,
Into the living sea of waking dreams,
Where there is neither sense of life or joys,
the vast shipwreck of my life’s esteems;
Even the that I loved the best
Are strange—nay, rather, stranger the rest.
I long for scenes where man hath trod
A place where woman never smiled or wept
to abide with my Creator, God,
And sleep as in childhood sweetly slept,
Untroubling and untroubled where I
The grass below—above the vaulted sky.