As Kingfishers Catch Fire

Gerard Manley Hopkins

1844 to 1889

Poem Image
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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Keeps grace: thát keeps all his goings graces;
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
I say móre: the just man justices;
To the Father through the features of men's faces.
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell's
Acts in God's eye what in God's eye he is —
Chríst — for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Selves — goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
Crying Whát I dó is me: for that I came.