Armies in the Fire

Robert Louis Stevenson · 1885

Catalog grade guidance: K–5 — Short children’s lyric; good for early memorization and reading aloud.

22 content lines · 127 words · Est. recitation about 1 min 17 sec (approx.)

Public-domain text for reading and recitation practice. Source: Project Gutenberg #136.Estimated time uses ~120 words/minute plus short pauses—not a contest rule.

Armies in the Fire

  The lamps now glitter down the street;
  Faintly sound the falling feet;
  And the blue even slowly falls
  About the garden trees and walls.

  Now in the falling of the gloom
  The red fire paints the empty room:
  And warmly on the roof it looks,
  And flickers on the back of books.

  Armies march by tower and spire
  Of cities blazing, in the fire;--
  Till as I gaze with staring eyes,
  The armies fade, the lustre dies.

  Then once again the glow returns;
  Again the phantom city burns;
  And down the red-hot valley, lo!
  The phantom armies marching go!

  Blinking embers, tell me true
  Where are those armies marching to,
  And what the burning city is
  That crumbles in your furnaces!


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