FIRES
BOOK I
THE STONE, AND OTHER TALES
BY
WILFRID WILSON GIBSON
LONDON
ELKIN MATHEWS, VIGO STREET
M CM XII
BY THE SAME WRITER
DAILY BREAD (1910)
WOMENKIND (1912)
TO
GEORGE CLAUSEN
A TRIBUTE
Snug in my easy chair,
I stirred the fire to flame.
Fantastically fair,
The flickering fancies came.
Born of hearts desire:
Amber woodland streaming;
Topaz islands dreaming;
Sunset-cities gleaming,
Spire on burning spire;
Ruddy-windowed taverns;
Sunshine-spilling wines;
Crystal-lighted caverns
Of Golconda's mines;
Summers, unreturning;
Passion's crater yearning;
Troy, the ever-burning;
Shelley's lustral pyre;
Dragon-eyes, unsleeping;
Witches' cauldrons leaping;
Golden galleys sweeping
Out from sea-walled Tyre:
Fancies, fugitive and fair,
Flashed with singing through the air;
Till, dazzled by the drowsy glare,
I shut my eyes to heat and light;
And saw, in sudden night,
Crouched in the dripping dark,
With steaming shoulders stark,
The man who hews the coal to feed my fire.
CONTENTS
The Stone
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