Bihar Board Class 12th English 100 Marks
Chapter-8
Fire-Hymn
-Keki N. Daruwalla
This poem is written by Keki. N. daruwala. In this poem the poet describes the scene of a burring Ghat.
One day, when the speaker was a child, he and his father passed by a burning ghat near the river bank. The fire had died out. The embers had lost their hot redness, and were now covered with grey ash.
There were half-burnt limbs and fingers of a body. The narrator’s father pointed out that sometimes fire was negligent. It forgets to burn the dead completely. The speaker was pained. He decided to save the fire from the sin of forgetfulness.
Twenty years later, the narrator’s eldest child died. He consigned his body to fire and saw that the fire burnt it completely. The Fire-Hymn forgave his non-Parsi act because it appeared that he had done so under compulsion and not willingly. The Tower of Peace was thousand miles from there. The narrator felt his purpose was defeated. He took a vow to save the fire next time from the sin of forgiveness.
