This is no hearth-kept blaze. If only the heart will hold it, maybe I can carry a brand to the ever lonely hearth to welcome a passerby or a neighbor -- anyone at all! -- but who is drawn to a daemon's call? This is no steady flame. To glimmer a while, to catch on resin and flare, to crackle at hindrances, grow dimmer with night and dampness, wildly glare, blind some and roar at others -- these are tricks of fire betrayed to the breeze. This is pursuing fire. Its fuming hostility melts the will like snow; compelled, I watch the wild consuming and tremble: Strangely, now I know this is a fire that none will tame -- the searched and seaching protoflame! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE WORN WEDDING-RING by WILLIAM COX BENNETT KINDNESS TO ANIMALS by JOSEPH ASHBY-STERRY CORRESPONDENCES by CHARLES BAUDELAIRE TO CHILDREN: 5. DAME HOLIDAY by WILLIAM ROSE BENET TOY DAY by HARRY RANDOLPH BLYTHE THE FAST OF TEBETH by JOSEPH BEN SAMUEL BONFILS DEDICATIONS AND INSCRIPTIONS: 8. BEAM-VERSES AT WELL KNOWE by GORDON BOTTOMLEY |