Logs Poem

[mrpercysnodgrass]

Beechwood fires are bright and clear
If the logs are kept a year,
Chestnut's 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 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 golden crown
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.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

and what is supposed to be the oldest known poem:-

Elum hateth man
...and waiteth.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

Beechwood fires are bright and clear
If the logs are kept a year,
Chestnut's 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 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 golden crown
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.

I like that. Thanks for posting. That also explains why every tree surgeon I've attempted to tickle timber out of has always jealously guarded any Ash. They obviously sell it on as firewood.

 

[david123]

My MIL gave me that poem when we got our first log burner 30 odd years ago. Great poem
Thanks

 

[gregmcateer]

I've heard the odd snippet of this before, but never the whole thing.
Thanks for sharing.
I'll print it off and put it near the log burner.

As an aside, I wonder if that is why remains of fires are called 'ash'?

Cheers

Greg

 

[davin]

Old hippies will enjoy it set to music by the incredible string band,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7HiPFnyoac

 

[mrpercysnodgrass]

Old hippies will enjoy it set to music by the incredible string band,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7HiPFnyoac

Never in my life did I think I would hear a song about firewood logs :shock:
I'm just going for a walk in the woods, I think I will take my revolver

 

[davin]

You think that ones bad, wait until you hear the ones about faeries and forest sprites !

 

[sdjp]

As an aside, I wonder if that is why remains of fires are called 'ash'?

No, it's linguistic co-incidence in modern English.

In Old English, fire ash was 'aesce', and the tree was 'aesc' (which was also the word for a spear, or sometimes just the haft of a spear).

Going further back, Old Norse has aska for fire ash, and askr for the tree, which, although it might not look like much, sounds a larger difference than the Old English.

Going _right_ back, the Proto-Indo-Eurpoean roots have 'as' for fire, (compare with, e.g. the Sandskrit 'asah' for ashes), and 'os' for the tree (leading to the latin Fraxinus [0] for the tree, which is now used for the genera collecting all the various Ash species).

It appears that the sounds for the two items have never been very far apart to Indo-Eurpoean ears, but only became the same sound somewhere between Old and Modern English.

[0] Pretend the 'Fr' is silent, and you can see the similarity to the modern English Ash.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Old hippies will enjoy it set to music by the incredible string band,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7HiPFnyoac

Hell's teeth - back to school again!

 

[Sheffield Tony]

Don't take too much notice of this old poem. All wood, when dry, will burn with pretty similar heat output weight for weight. Ash, burnt when green, will make a right mess of your stove glass whatever it says.