Who Lights The Fire?
George MacDonald 1824 (Huntly) – 1905 (Ashtead)
Who lights the fire-that forth so gracefully
And freely frolicketh the fairy smoke?
Some pretty one who never felt the yoke-
Glad girl, or maiden more sedate than she.
Pedant it cannot, villain cannot be!
Some genius, may-be, his own symbol woke;
But puritan, nor rogue in virtue's cloke,
Nor kitchen-maid has done it certainly!
Ha, ha! you cannot find the lighter out
For all the blue smoke's pantomimic gesture-
His name or nature, sex or age or vesture!
The fire was lit by human care, no doubt-
But now the smoke is Nature's tributary,
Dancing 'twixt man and nothing like a fairy.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 32 sec read
- 97 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABBA ABBA CDDCAA |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 579 |
Words | 105 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 6 |
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"Who Lights The Fire?" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 23 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/42960/who-lights-the-fire?>.
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