Upton Sinclair, ed. (1878–1968). rn The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest. 1915.

Fires

Wilfrid Wilson Gibson

(Contemporary English poet of the lives of the poor)

SNUG in my easy chair,

I stirred the fire to flame.

Fantastically fair

The flickering fancies came,

Born of heart’s desire:

Amber woodlands 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 winging 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 streaming shoulders stark,

The man who hews the coal to feed my fire.