FIRE WITH FIRE.
There are creeping flames in the near-by grass;
There are leaping flames afar;
And the wind’s black breath
Is hot with death,—
The worst of the deaths that are!
And north is fire and south is fire,
And east and west the same;
The sunlight chokes,
The whole earth smokes,
The only light is flame!
But what do I care for the girdle of death
With its wavering wall and spire!
I draw the ring
Where I am king,
And fight the fire with fire!
My blaze is not as wide as the world,
Nor tall for the world to see;
But the flames I make
For life’s sweet sake,
Are between the fire and me.
That fire would burn in wantonness
All things that life must use;
Some things I lay
In the dragon’s way
And burn because I choose.
The sky is black, the air is red,
The earth is a flaming sea;
But I’m shielded well
In the seething hell,
By the fire that comes from me.
There is nothing on earth a man need fear,
Nothing so dark or dire;
Though the world is wide,
You have more inside,
You can fight the fire with fire!