Fires - Book 3: The Hare, and Other Tales

In Short

This collection of narrative poems tells vivid stories of working-class people, sea-farers, and moorland wanderers navigating love, terror, and grief. Set against harsh industrial landscapes, isolated lighthouse rocks, and windy northern fells, the tales follow individuals caught in moments of sharp emotional or physical crisis: a young bride who sabotages a lilac tree in a fever of jealousy, a lighthouse builder enchanted by a seal-maiden, and a wandering youth who flees into the night with a frightened girl. Gibson’s work endures for its rhythmic power and its deep, unsentimental empathy for ordinary human lives.

The Story

The book presents a series of dramatic tales in verse, beginning on the isolated rock of Skua Light. There, a lighthouse builder watches friendly seals gather to hear a boy’s violin. One moonlit night, the builder calls upon a young seal to dance; she sheds her skin to become a maiden white as snow. They dance wildly until dawn, but the fiddle breaks, the vision vanishes, and the speaker is left stranded in the inland world, forever haunted by the memory of his sea-maiden.

In the industrial valleys, a young woman walks past towering slag heaps with her glum, silent lover, Robert. Overwhelmed by the monotony of her factory job, she longs for a spark of passion from her quiet companion. Suddenly, a section of the slag heap collapses, exposing a fiery pit where a little boy had fallen asleep. Robert immediately scrambles up the treacherous, shifting heap and snatches the child from the brink of death. Watching him return the child to its parents, the girl recognizes the deep, steady fire of his devotion, and her resentment melts into intense joy.

Along the coast at Devil’s Edge, a traveler lies under the stars and hears a strange, terrified voice singing in a dark gully. Later, a local fisherman explains that a newlywed named Philip Burn was lost at sea without a trace, leaving his young wife to wander the shore at night, singing wild songs in her grief. Returning in the winter, the traveler passes her cottage and hears the same voice—now calm and tender—singing her newborn baby to sleep.

Domestic life takes a darker turn in the story of a newlywed bride whose husband plants no lilac tree for her because his first wife died in bloom, leaving him to associate the scent with death. As her own pregnancy advances, the wife becomes consumed by a manic jealousy of the dead woman's memory and the blooming tree outside. In the dead of night, she takes a spade and knife, savagely hacking the tree's roots. Though her baby is born dead, the shared grief finally breaks the spell of the past; her husband offers to plant a new white lilac together in memory of their lost child.

The closing tale follows a seventeen-year-old youth who dreams of a hare caught in a snare. Waking on the moors, he follows a real hare across the countryside until he reaches the fires of Brough Hill Fair. There he meets a terrified runaway girl whose eyes mirror the panicked gaze of the hare from his dream. She is fleeing from Fat Pete, an older man to whom she has been promised. The youth joins her as she slips away into the night. Together they roam the high fell country, finding freedom and joy in the open air, until the youth's persistent fear of losing her is healed when she gently releases a motherless leveret back into the wild.

How It Unfolds

The haul to the coast A youth sleeps beside a hayrick on the high moors, dreaming of a trapped hare, before waking at dawn to follow a living hare across the windy heather and peat bogs.

The gathering at the fair The pursuit leads him to the glowing campfires of Brough Hill Fair, where he sits among travellers for supper and spots a young woman terrified of a leering man in the shadows.

Flight into the dark Recognizing the wild, trapped look in her eyes, the youth follows as she secretly bundles her belongings and escapes the camp, offering to carry her pack as they strike out across the moonlit fells.

Confessions at dawn As the morning mist clears beside a cold stream, she reveals her life in the caravans, the death of her parents, and her desperate flight to avoid being forced into marriage with her late father's creditor.

Life on the open road The pair spend six happy months wandering together under the sun and rain, yet the youth remains secretly haunted by nightmares that her fear will return and she will run away.

The leveret in the straw Waking from a recurring nightmare of the snare, the youth sees his companion tenderly holding a lost baby hare, and watching her set it free finally dispels his anxiety forever.

The People

• The Wandering Youth: A lanky, seventeen-year-old traveler who lives by his instincts. He seeks good luck on the open road, acts on sudden protective urges, and wants to protect the girl he loves without trapping her.
• The Runaway Girl: An orphan raised in a travelling caravan who flees an abusive forced marriage. She wants freedom, safety, and a life outdoors, ultimately overcoming her fear through mutual trust and affection.
• Robert: A tall, broad-chested furnace worker who appears cold and tongue-tied to his girlfriend, but harbors deep courage and tenderness that reveal themselves when he saves a child from a collapsed slag pit.
• The Factory Girl: A seventeen-year-old seamstress exhausted by her daily routine. She craves romantic warmth and expression from Robert, finding it only when she witnesses his selflessness.
• The Young Bride: A pregnant woman tormented by the lingering memory of her husband’s deceased first wife. Driven half-mad by jealousy toward a blossoming lilac tree, she eventually finds peace through shared sorrow.

In Its Own Voice

"We danced beneath the dancing moon, / All night, beside the dancing sea, / With tripping toes and skipping heels..."

The lighthouse builder recalls the frantic, magical reel he shared on the rocks with the enchanted seal-maiden before she vanished into the dawn.

"...even as she looked askance at him-- / Well-knit, big-thewed, broad-chested, steady-eyed-- / She dimly knew of depths she could not sound / In this strong lover, silent at her side..."

Walking past the dreary industrial slag heaps, the seamstress reflects on the hidden emotional depth of her quiet companion.

"And, as I looked into their light, / My heart forgot the lust of fight, / And something shot me to the quick..."

The young wanderer describes the exact moment he locks eyes with the runaway girl at the fair, instantly abandoning his desire for violence in favor of love.

What It's Really About

The collection explores the delicate boundary between human emotion and the natural world, examining how ordinary people process fear, isolation, and domestic trauma. Its primary question is how individuals trapped by circumstances—whether by grueling industrial labor, grief, or abusive relationships—find moments of freedom and emotional connection. Gibson contrasts the suffocating weight of industrial life and rigid expectations with the wild, unpredictable grace of the open sea and moors. The recurrent motif of the hare and the seal highlights the instinct to escape capture, suggesting that love cannot thrive through force or ownership, but only when given room to remain wild and free.

Why Read It Today

Fires appeals to readers who appreciate narrative poetry, folklore, and vivid portraits of working-class life. Gibson writes with a direct, rhythmic cadence that captures the cadence of speech and the atmosphere of northern English landscapes. Reading the collection feels like sitting by a fireplace listening to old country tales—it is immersive, swift-moving, and intensely visual.

`` +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Key Reading Elements | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | • Narrative verse written in accessible, rhyming meter | | • Dramatic depictions of early 20th-century labor and rural landscapes| | • Psychological focus on jealousy, grief, and romantic devotion | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ ``

Modern readers should be aware that the collection reflects the period's dialectical phrasing and simple, stark depictions of poverty, industrial hazards, and infant mortality. The emotional struggles are presented without modern psychological gloss, relying instead on elemental symbols—fire, sea, slag, and wild game. The strength of the book lies in its timeless sympathy for vulnerable people finding light in dark places.