Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Rebecca Wolff’s "Flame On" is an eerie meditation on desire, performance, and recurrence, where the act of tending a fire becomes a ritual infused with longing, memory, and theatricality. The poem plays with the flickering nature of perception—how the face of the beloved appears and disappears within fire, how motion and illumination create layered meanings, and how the speaker’s role becomes both deeply personal and strangely public. The title, Flame On, carries multiple connotations: the literal ignition of fire, the persistence of passion, and even a reference to transformation or spectacle, as in the superheroic exclamation from the Fantastic Four. Throughout, the poem shifts between intimacy and performance, between the elemental and the electric.

“Every time I approach this borrowed hearth I see the face / of the one I love.” The opening line establishes the central tension: the hearth is not the speaker’s own, yet it becomes a place of intimate vision. The phrase “borrowed hearth” suggests something impermanent, an inherited or temporary space where warmth and revelation occur. The face of the beloved is elusive—“In the fire? No—maybe / in the log, on fire?”—as if the speaker is attempting to locate the exact moment or place in which recognition happens. The hesitation and self-correction create a sense of searching, of uncertainty, as though the vision is not stable but flickering like the flames themselves.

“Or is it in the action of the log, / thrown into the fire, that I briefly catch a glimpse of his visage?” Here, the beloved is not fixed within the fire but is instead glimpsed in the moment of transition, in the act of the log being thrown in. This suggests that the revelation is not in the fire’s steady burning but in the violent, transformative moment of ignition. The phrase “riddled with inference” reinforces the idea that the beloved is not fully present but rather embedded within signs, suggestions, half-seen traces. “Stretching out atop / the fevered flames” suggests both an ethereal presence and an eerie corporeality—his body becomes part of the burning, consuming and consumed.

“I walk to the fireplace in performance of a function, / in perpetuity.” This line shifts the focus from the fire to the speaker’s role, framing the act of tending the hearth as a performance. The phrase “in performance of a function” suggests a ritual, an obligation, or even a theatrical act. The addition of “in perpetuity” transforms this into something endless, as if the speaker is caught in a loop, returning to the same action over and over again. The routine becomes both meditative and compulsive, reinforcing the interplay between personal devotion and theatrical repetition.

“What is triggered / by noon—the sun, spreading over the ribs / of the room, defers its gloomy dominion.” Here, the imagery of light shifts from fire to natural sunlight. Noon is a moment of illumination, where the spreading sunlight momentarily holds back darkness. The phrase “defers its gloomy dominion” suggests that this is only a temporary reprieve, that darkness will inevitably return. This momentary balance of light and shadow mirrors the ephemeral glimpse of the beloved’s face in the fire—both are fleeting, neither entirely dispels absence.

“In the back / of the brain is an installation; a vision: a whole room / filled with observers—an audience—on site, glued / to the spectacle of me, returning once more, then again, to my spot / on the hearth.” The poem moves into a more explicitly performative mode here, introducing an imagined audience. The act of tending the fire, initially personal, now becomes a staged event. The reference to an “installation” suggests a deliberate construction, as though the speaker’s movements—walking to the hearth, placing the log, watching the flames—are part of an ongoing art piece or theatrical loop. The phrase “on site, glued / to the spectacle of me” underscores the idea that this act is being watched, analyzed, or perhaps even anticipated. The self-consciousness here is striking—what was once an intimate experience of loss or longing is now rendered as public, a performance repeated “once more, then again.”

“Whence I throw a switch.” This phrase suggests a shift from the elemental (fire) to the mechanical (electricity). Instead of placing a log in the fire, the speaker now activates light through a switch—an artificial ignition. This transition reinforces the interplay between natural and constructed illumination, between organic revelation and controlled performance.

“The light blazes on, electrified, conducive, evocative / motion of the mind.” The final lines turn the poem toward mental illumination, emphasizing thought, memory, and cognition. “Electrified” suggests both literal light and the metaphorical spark of realization. The phrase “conducive, evocative” implies that the act of turning on the light facilitates thought, memory, or inspiration. The closing line—“He just barely scratches the surface.”—returns to the beloved’s elusive presence. Even after all this fire, all this light, all this ritual, he remains just beyond reach, his presence hinted at but never fully grasped.

"Flame On" is a poem about recurrence, perception, and the way desire is intertwined with ritual. The speaker’s repeated act of tending the fire becomes a site of both private vision and public performance, where absence is transformed into spectacle. The beloved’s face is not fixed but fleeting, glimpsed only in moments of transition, suggesting that memory and longing are not stable states but constantly shifting, dependent on action and illumination. By moving between firelight, sunlight, and artificial light, the poem explores different kinds of seeing—natural, constructed, fleeting, and controlled—while maintaining an undercurrent of melancholy, as the speaker’s devotion continues, and the beloved remains just beyond reach.

Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!

Other Poems of Interest...