[Edgar Albert GUEST (1881-1959, poet)]. - Robt. J. LEDERER. ƒ??The Grate Fire and You.ƒ?, a

[Edgar Albert GUEST (1881-1959, poet)]. -  Robt. J. LEDERER.

“The Grate Fire and You.”, a manuscript 4-verse 24-line poem on cloth. [Undated]. Sheet size: 12 ¾ x 12in; 324 x 306mm., signed ‘Robt J. Lederer Esq’.

A beautiful and intriguing object: a search of the text shows up an almost identical published version, but it is listed as being by Edgar A. Guest. The first appearance that we can trace is in about 1920, and the present version looks to be older. Its size, the subject of the poem and the materials used suggest that it might have been intended as part of a fire-screen?

The text of the poem is as follows:

“The Grate Fire and You. [aka The Grate Fire by Edgar A. Guest, variant published version is given below in square brackets]

I'm sorry for a fellow if he cannot look and see

In a grate fire's friendly flaming all the joys which used to be.

If in quiet contemplation of a cheerful ruddy blaze,

He sees nothing there recalling all his happy yesterdays,

Then his mind is dead to fancy and his life is bleak and bare,

And he's doomed to walk the highways that are always thick with care.

When the logs are dry as tinder and they crackle with the heat,

And the sparks, like merry children, come a-dancing round my feet,

In the cold, long nights of winter [autumn] I can sit before the blaze

And watch a panorama born of all my yesterdays.

I can leave the present burdens and that moment's bit of woe,

And claim once more the gladness of the bygone long-ago.

There are no absent faces in the grate-fire's merry throng;

No hands in death are folded, and no lips are stilled to song.

All the friends who “were” are living - like the sparks that fly about;

They come romping out to greet me with the same old merry shout,

Till it seems to me I'm playing once again on boyhood's stage,

Where there's no such thing as sorrow and [there's] no such thing as age.

I can be the care-free schoolboy! I can play the lover, too!

I can walk through Maytime orchards with the old love [sweetheart] I knew,

I can dream the glad dreams over, greet the old familiar friends

In a land where there's no parting and the laughter never ends.

All the gladness life has given from a grate fire I reclaim,

And I'm sorry for the fellow who can only see the flame. 

Robt. J. Lederer Esq.”