Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Susan Wood’s "On Fire" is a profound meditation on love, loss, and the transformative power of memory. Framed by William Matthews’s epigraph—"Love might ask anything of you / Or fire might ask anything of you / and say that its name is love"—the poem weaves together images of fire, language, and familial bonds to explore the vulnerabilities and complexities of human relationships. Through its vivid storytelling and layered metaphors, "On Fire" captures the intensity of emotions that shape our understanding of love, sacrifice, and grief.

The poem begins with an understated reflection on the phrase “playing with fire,” a metaphor that sparks both wonder and introspection in the speaker. The initial denial—“not me”—underscores a childlike innocence and detachment from the risks or passions implied by the phrase. Yet this innocence is juxtaposed with the speaker’s awareness of how language, much like fire, can be both revelatory and destructive. The observation that “language is a metaphor for metaphor” sets the tone for the poem’s exploration of meaning, where words, like fire and snow, carry layers of symbolic weight.

Wood’s portrayal of snow as “not itself solely, but the longing / it engenders and endures” introduces the idea of memory and its role in shaping our perceptions of the present. Snow becomes a stand-in for the past, a fleeting yet enduring symbol of what is lost and what lingers. This interplay between fire and snow—heat and cold, presence and absence—pervades the poem, reflecting the tension between love’s transformative power and its inevitable risks.

The narrative shifts to a childhood memory, where fire becomes both a literal and figurative force. In the speaker’s winter childhood, fire was a necessity, yet it carried an inherent danger: “gas heaters licking the ice from the air, / someone’s white nightgown tongued red with flame.” This image of flame consuming a nightgown encapsulates the dual nature of fire as both life-sustaining and destructive, a force that parallels the complexities of love and grief.

The story of the father’s old football coach, who sacrifices himself to save his son, introduces the theme of heroic love and the cost of such sacrifices. The coach’s act of pushing his son to safety “just as the roof collapsed around him” is described as “a hero’s unremarkable story,” suggesting the quiet inevitability of such love. This story becomes a touchstone for the speaker’s understanding of what it means to give fully, even at great personal cost.

The depiction of the father grieving for his coach reveals a depth of emotion that the speaker has never witnessed before. The father’s sobs, described as “like stutters in her throat” during the earlier loss of a sister, are now “fully, like a man among men.” This moment of unrestrained grief humanizes the father, breaking through the child’s perception of him as invulnerable. The gathering of the father’s friends, with their massive hands that could “cradle a football...or a bird,” reinforces the juxtaposition of strength and tenderness, qualities that define both the father and his grief.

The speaker’s response to this scene is deeply visceral: “In the cold room my face burned as I watched. / I was on fire with love and awe for him and, yes, with shame.” This burning sensation encapsulates the intensity of witnessing such raw vulnerability, mingling admiration with discomfort. The fire here is both literal and metaphorical, representing the searing impact of love and the weight of understanding the sacrifices that love demands. The speaker’s shame reflects the dawning realization of her own inadequacy in the face of such profound emotions and actions, a feeling that resonates with the complexity of familial relationships.

Throughout the poem, Wood’s language is precise and evocative, capturing the physical and emotional textures of the scenes she describes. The imagery of fire—licking, tonguing, consuming—is interwoven with the tactile details of cold rooms, gas heaters, and snow, creating a vivid sensory landscape. The tone shifts fluidly between reflective and narrative, allowing the speaker’s insights to emerge organically from the memories she recounts.

At its core, "On Fire" is a meditation on the transformative power of love and grief. Through its exploration of memory, sacrifice, and vulnerability, the poem reveals the complexities of human connection and the ways in which we come to understand love through moments of loss and awe. By intertwining the literal and the metaphorical, Wood creates a rich tapestry of emotions, leaving readers to reflect on the fire within their own lives—the risks, the sacrifices, and the enduring warmth of love that persists even in the face of its losses.

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