The Firewood Poem

The Firewood Poem

By Lady Celia Congreve

 

This poem is one that I remember from my childhood.
With the present fuel crisis it is particularly apt as record number of people are replacing their gas or electric fires, getting their chimneys swept and opening up old redundant fireplaces

Beechwood fires are bright and clear
If the logs are kept a year,
Chestnuts only good they say,
If for logs ’tis laid away.
Make a fire of Elder tree,
Death within your house will be;
But ash new or ash old.
Is fit for a queen with a crown of gold

Birch and fir logs burn too fast
Blaze up bright and do not last,
It is by the Irish said
Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread.
Elm wood burns like churchyard mould,
E’en the very flames are cold
But ash green or ash brown
Is fit for a queen with a crown of gold

Poplar gives a bitter smoke,
Fills your eyes and makes you choke,
Apple wood will scent your room
Pear wood smells like flowers in bloom
Oaken logs, if dry and old
Keep away the winter’s cold
But ash wet or ash dry
A king shall warm his slippers by

This poem was written by Lady Celia Congreve, a poet and WW1 nurse and it was first published in the Times in 1930