Login
|
Join PoetrySoup
Home
Submit Poems
Login
Sign Up
Member Home
My Poems
My Quotes
My Profile & Settings
My Inboxes
My Outboxes
Soup Mail
Contest Results/Status
Contests
Poems
Poets
Famous Poems
Famous Poets
Dictionary
Types of Poems
Quotes
Short Stories
Articles
Forum
Blogs
Poem of the Day
New Poems
Resources
Syllable Counter
Anthology
Grammar Check
Greeting Card Maker
Classifieds
Member Area
Member Home
My Profile and Settings
My Poems
My Quotes
My Short Stories
My Articles
My Comments Inboxes
My Comments Outboxes
Soup Mail
Poetry Contests
Contest Results/Status
Followers
Poems of Poets I Follow
Friend Builder
Soup Social
Poetry Forum
New/Upcoming Features
The Wall
Soup Facebook Page
Who is Online
Link to Us
Member Poems
Poems - Top 100 New
Poems - Top 100 All-Time
Poems - Best
Poems - by Topic
Poems - New (All)
Poems - New (PM)
Poems - New by Poet
Poems - Random
Poems - Read
Poems - Unread
Member Poets
Poets - Best New
Poets - New
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems Recent
Poets - Top 100 Community
Poets - Top 100 Contest
Famous Poems
Famous Poems - African American
Famous Poems - Best
Famous Poems - Classical
Famous Poems - English
Famous Poems - Haiku
Famous Poems - Love
Famous Poems - Short
Famous Poems - Top 100
Famous Poets
Famous Poets - Living
Famous Poets - Most Popular
Famous Poets - Top 100
Famous Poets - Best
Famous Poets - Women
Famous Poets - African American
Famous Poets - Beat
Famous Poets - Cinquain
Famous Poets - Classical
Famous Poets - English
Famous Poets - Haiku
Famous Poets - Hindi
Famous Poets - Jewish
Famous Poets - Love
Famous Poets - Metaphysical
Famous Poets - Modern
Famous Poets - Punjabi
Famous Poets - Romantic
Famous Poets - Spanish
Famous Poets - Suicidal
Famous Poets - Urdu
Famous Poets - War
Poetry Resources
Anagrams
Bible
Book Store
Character Counter
Cliché Finder
Poetry Clichés
Common Words
Copyright Information
Grammar
Grammar Checker
Homonym
Homophones
How to Write a Poem
Lyrics
Love Poem Generator
New Poetic Forms
Plagiarism Checker
Poetics
Poetry Art
Publishing
Random Word Generator
Spell Checker
Store
What is Good Poetry?
Word Counter
Email Poem
Your IP Address: 3.136.17.105
Your Email Address:
Required
Email Address Not Valid.
To Email Address:
Email Address Not Valid.
Required
Subject
Required
Personal Note:
Poem Title:
Poem
Part 2 - The Great Fire of London, 1666 Just think of a town, put up with no plan, where people build houses wherever they can. The streets twist and dip, hugging ditches and streams, and safety's a thing of which nobody dreams. There aren't any rules, or best practices, codes, regulations, fire stations, no hydrants or nodes. The street where you live has no concrete, just clay, and it's narrow, foul-smelling, and no light of day can squeeze in. Your ground floor is brick-built and stout, but your upstairs is flimsy and jetties right out, almost touching your neighbour's. You thus form a tunnel through which rats, cats and faeces can constantly funnel. Well, come with me now to meet Thomas and Jane, who live, work and worry in just such a lane: it's always called "Pudding", which gives us a clue - for baking is what all the people here do. September the second, the year sixty-six, and Old Mother Nature's been up to her tricks: we haven't seen rain since the start of the war, and timbers are shrinking, and drier than straw. Tom's oven malfunctions. The house catches fire. Our instinct, in peril? To try to get higher. Tom, Jane, the children, and Sukie, the maid (Sukie is thirteen, and very afraid) climb out on the roof. Oh, the smoke and the heat! The roof tiles are baking, and hurting our feet! We've all got to jump to the roof to our left: but don't glance below as you're leaping the cleft! But Sukie can't do it. It's asking too much. She'll be the first to be killed by the Dutch. The signals aren't vaulting across her synapses. She's lost from our sight when the storey collapses. Four days blazed this greatest of all conflagrations, engulfing some thousands of poor habitations and scores of old churches, whether timber or stone. The tally of people will never be known. A square mile of ruin. A city destroyed. A blackened and acrid and comfortless void. Saint Paul's is a shell, its rubble still smoking. But who is that gentleman, measuring, poking?
CAPTCHA Preview
Type the characters you see in the picture
Required