Logs to Burn
Beechwood fires burn bright and clear
If the logs are kept a year:
Store your beech for Christmastide,
With new~cut holly laid beside.
Chestnut’s only good they say,
If for years ‘tis stored away;
Birch and firwood burn too fast,
Blaze too bright and do not last;
Flames from larch will shoot up high,
Dangerously the sparks will fly.
But Ashwood green and ashwood brown
Are fit for a queen with a golden crown.
Oaken logs, if dry and old,
Keep away the winter’s cold;
Poplar gives a bitter smoke,
Fills your eyes and makes you choke;
Elmwood burns like churchyard mould,
E’en the very flames are cold.
Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread~
So it is in Ireland said;
Applewood will scent the room,
Pearwood smells like flowers in bloom,
But ashwood wet and ashwood dry
A king may warm his slippers by
