FIRE WITH FIRE.

 There are creeping flames in the near-by grass;

There are leaping flames afar;

And the wind’s black breath

Is hot with death,—

The worst of the deaths that are!

And north is fire and south is fire,

And east and west the same;

The sunlight chokes,

The whole earth smokes,

The only light is flame!

But what do I care for the girdle of death

With its wavering wall and spire¹!

I draw the ring

Where I am king,

And fight the fire with fire!

My blaze is not as wide as the world,

Nor tall for the world to see;

But the flames I make

For life’s sweet sake,

Are between the fire and me.

That fire would burn in wantonness

All things that life must use;

Some things I lay

In the dragon’s way

And burn because I choose.

The sky is black, the air is red,

The earth is a flaming sea;

18But I’m shielded well

In the seething² hell,

By the fire that comes from me.

There is nothing on earth a man need fear,

Nothing so dark or dire³;

Though the world is wide,

You have more inside,

You can fight the fire with fire!

1 spire   

n.(教堂)尖顶，尖塔，高点

参考例句：

• The church spire was struck by lightning.教堂的尖顶遭到了雷击。
• They could just make out the spire of the church in the distance.他们只能辨认出远处教堂的尖塔。

2 seething   

沸腾的，火热的

参考例句：

• The stadium was a seething cauldron of emotion. 体育场内群情沸腾。
• The meeting hall was seething at once. 会场上顿时沸腾起来了。

3 dire   

adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的

参考例句：

• There were dire warnings about the dangers of watching too much TV.曾经有人就看电视太多的危害性提出严重警告。
• We were indeed in dire straits.But we pulled through.那时我们的困难真是大极了，但是我们渡过了困难。