The Fire
Lola Ridge 1873 – 1941
The old men of the world have made a fire
To warm their trembling hands.
They poke the young men in.
The young men burn like withes.
If one run a little way,
The old men are wrath.
They catch him and bind him and throw him again to the flames.
Green withes burn slow…
And the smoke of the young men's torment
Rises round and sheer as the trunk of a pillared oak,
And the darkness thereof spreads over the sky….
Green withes burn slow…
And the old men of the world sit round the fire
And rub their hands….
But the smoke of the young men's torment
Ascends up for ever and ever.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 08, 2023
- 35 sec read
- 72 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | abxb xxxCdxx Cabda |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 576 |
Words | 117 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 7, 5 |
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"The Fire" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 23 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/25936/the-fire>.
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