If the logs are kept a year;
Store your beech for Christmastide
With new-cut holly laid beside.
Chestnut's only good, they say,
If for years 'tis stored away;
Birch and firwood burn too fast,
Blaze too bright and do not last.
Flames from larch will shoot up high,
Dangerously the sparks will fly;
But ash-wood green and ashwood brown
Are fit for a queen with a golden crown.
Oaken logs, if dry and old,
Keep away the winter's cold;
Poplar gives a bitter smoke,
Fills your eyes and makes you choke.
Elm-wood burns like churchyard mould,
E'en the very flames are cold;
Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread
So it is in Ireland said.
Applewood will scent the room,
Pear-wood smells like flowers in bloom,
But ash-wood wet and ash-wood dry
A king may warm his slippers by.