Dead Fires

Alexander Anderson

Dead Fires


If this is peace, this dead and leaden thing,

Then better far the hateful fret, the sting.

Better the wound forever seeking balm

Than this gray calm!

Is this pain's surcease? Better far the ache,

The long-drawn dreary day, the night's white wake,

Better the choking sigh, the sobbing breath

Than passion's death!



This poem, “Dead Fires” by Jessie Redmon Fauset has the speaker portrayed as a human rights activist, not just an African American rights activist. The poem is more or less dedicated to expressing the lesson that even when situations look bleak and hopeless, it’s better to suffer than give up the cause fought for, as expressed by the end phrase “Better the choking sigh, the sobbing breath / Than passion's death!”.

In essence, this poem seems to hold multiple meanings to not only African American rights, but also to rights of those of different cultures and ethnicities who were oppressed during that time, or before the Renaissance as the introduction makes no attempt to clarify this; “If this is peace, this dead and leaden thing, / Then better far the hateful fret, the sting”. It may simply be a misinterpretation but it seems to be encouraging all sides in disadvantageous civil positions to rise and fight for what they want. By all sides, this includes those who may not have been as well depicted in history as they should have been; the Confederation of the U.S.A and the Japanese Kamikaze fighters being prime examples of this. Another point in question, about comparing peace, albeit a shaky one, to “this dead and leaden thing,”is something that most would attempt to express either in more complicated terms, so as to interpret it differently if ever faced with unforeseen consequences, or not to write it at all. By understanding the abnormality of such a bold statement from a colored woman, it can be assumed that she was either naturally rebellious or witnessed something that prompted her to break the norm.