Life
Anna Lætitia Barbauld
1743 to 1825
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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Choose thine own time;
O whither, whither dost thou fly,
Life! I know not what thou art,
But this I know, when thou art fled,
Through blank oblivious years th' appointed hour,
From whence thy essence came,
Wait, like some spell-bound knight,
From matter's base encumbering weed?
'Tis hard to part when friends are dear;
Yet canst thou without thought or feeling be?
O say what art thou, when no more thou 'rt thee?
But know that thou and I must part;
Through pleasant and through cloudy weather;
Dost thou thy flight pursue, when freed
To the vast ocean of empyreal flame,
No clod so valueless shall be,
As all that then remains of me.
Bid me Good morning.
And in this strange divorce,
Say not Good night, but in some brighter clime
Where bend unseen thy trackless course,
I own to me's a secret yet.
To break thy trance and reassume thy power?
Then steal away, give little warning,
Or dost thou, hid from sight,
Where'er they lay these limbs, this head,
Perhaps 't will cost a sigh, a tear;
Life! we've been long together,
And when, or how, or where we met,
Ah tell where I must seek this compound I?