Classic Poem

Suddenly the hiss of steam
In the quiet of the night —
And I wake to watch the gleam
Of the leaping furnace-light.

I have barely dropped asleep,
Barely for a breath forgot
The hot blasts of hate that keep
Anger in my heart still hot,

When that hissing in the dark,
Like the night deriding me,
Blows to blaze the smouldering spark —
To a glare that instantly

Fills the cauldron of my brain;
And I rise to pace the room
Till the labouring day again
Calls me with the buzzer's boom.