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

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABBA ABBA CDDCAA
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 579
Words 105
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 6

George MacDonald

George MacDonald was a Scottish author, poet, and Christian minister. more…

All George MacDonald poems | George MacDonald Books

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