Fire's Reflection
Fire's Reflection - meaning Summary
Memory as Reflected Fire
The poem describes how a childhood impression—perhaps merely a reflected fire on furniture—can be remembered later as revelation. That early image can mislead an adult into mistaking danger for promise, causing hurt. Music is also recalled as a force that drew the child toward a complex absence while swelling the heart. Overall, the poem sketches memory’s blend of illusion, longing, and the emotional risks of misremembering.
Read Complete AnalysesPerhaps it's no more than the fire's reflection on some piece of gleaming furniture that the child remembers so much later like a revelation. And if in his later life, one day wounds him like so many others, it's because he mistook some risk or other for a promise. Let's not forget the music, either, that soon had hauled him toward absence complicated by an overflowing heart....
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