MEN call her evil; she wears fireflies in her hair. They say that each firefly is the soul of a man Who died for love of her, this dancing girl without heart. I know that the fireflies are the grave-fires Of O-Hanna's heart. She killed that When, at her father's behest, she gave her beauty to men, That her brother might go to Tokio to the University; And the fisherman's son that she had met At the pulling-in of the nets wedded another. The fireflies, men say, will light the way to hell For the soul of this one-time fisher girl, Now the queen of dance-women. But I know otherwise. I am the wife Of the fisher-lad who once loved O-Hanna-san. From my man I know her soul Shines like a fire-fly in the darkness of men's souls, And it may be that in a land Where there is neither buying nor selling of love We three, my fisher lord, and I and O-Hanna-san, Shall walk forever hand in hand, in firefly light. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MARSHALL WASHER by HAYDEN CARRUTH CLEAR AND COLDER; BOSTON COMMON by ROBERT FROST AFTER WRITING A POEM by DAVID IGNATOW TRIFLE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON JOHN ERICSSON DAY MEMORIAL, 1918 by CARL SANDBURG |