Fire

Dorothea Mackeller 1885 (Point Piper, Sydney) – 1968 (Randwick)



This life that we call our own
Is neither strong nor free;
A flame in the wind of death,
It trembles ceaselessly.

And this all we can do
To use our little light
Before, in the piercing wind,
It flickers into night:

To yield the heat of the flame,
To grudge not, but to give
Whatever we have of strength,
That one more flame may live.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 09, 2023

20 sec read
250

Quick analysis:

Scheme XAXA XBXB XXXX
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 332
Words 68
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4

Dorothea Mackeller

Isobel Marion Dorothea Mackellar (better known as Dorothea Mackellar), OBE was an Australian poet and fiction writer. Her poem My Country is widely known in Australia, especially its second stanza, which begins: "I love a sunburnt country/A land of sweeping plains,/Of ragged mountain ranges,/Of droughts and flooding rains." more…

All Dorothea Mackeller poems | Dorothea Mackeller Books

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    "Fire" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/8104/fire>.

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