Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Staying warm in Pottageville...

Photo by Barry Wallace
The Firewood Poem
by Lady Celia Congreve, 1930

Beech-wood fires burn bright and clear
If the logs are kept a year;
Store your beech for Christmastide
With new-cut holly laid beside;
Chestnut's only good, they say,
If for years 'tis stored away;
Birch and fir-wood burn to fast
Blaze too bright and do not last;
Flames from larch will shoot up high,
Dangerously the sparks will fly;
But ash-wood green and ash-wood brown
Are fit for a queen with a golden crown.

Oaken logs, if dry and old,
Keep away the winter's cold;
Poplar gives a bitter smoke,
Fills your eyes and makes you choke;
Elm-wood burns like churchyard mould,
E'en the very flames are cold;
It is by the Irish said
Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread
Apple-wood will scent the room,
Pear-wood smells like flowers in bloom;
But ash-wood wet and ash-wood dry
A king shall warm his slippers by.


But what of maple, Lady Congreve?

Please comment if you wish.
Barry Wallace

2 comments:

  1. Good poem and a good question. If you were going to add the maple what would you have said?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Maple logs with sap so sweet
    Burn forever with fragrant heat

    ReplyDelete