A close friend from Big Island that spends WAY TOO MUCH time on the internet and communicating with ChatGPT(They are like best friends...) shared this 1930's Firewood Poem(Written by Celia Congreve and published in THE TIMES newspaper on March 2nd 1930) with me:
The Firewood Poem
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.
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.
A couple things that I LOVE about this poem:
1. Ash Firewood is the Greatest - Ash firewood gets A LOT of play - fit for a queen and good for warming king's slippers and what not... The tight association of ash firewood to royalty and wealth is compelling when you have about 1000+ ash trees to cut down.
2. Hatred of Manitoba Maples - Elder Trees(IE Manitoba Maples) were horrible in the 1930's and are still horrible for everything in 2025 - 95 years really does not change things in the tree/firewood game.
3. Firewood Poems are Cool - People in 1930 were writing poems about Firewood... those were the good old days. Now we are too busy scrolling Facebook and watching TikTok videos to burn firewood or god forbid write a poem about what firewood people should burn.
Thank you to my Big Island friend for sharing this insightful firewood poem with me.
My favorite portion of the AI(I am not a big AI person but this is kind of funny) analysis:
"The repetition of "ash" as a refrain suggests its superiority among firewood choices. This mirrors the social hierarchy of the time, where ash was associated with royalty and wealth."
I can honestly say my ash trees are not "associated with royalty and wealth" of any meaningful kind - mostly associated with hard work and me swearing a lot.
