‘Fire-Hymn’ is a heart-touching poem written by ‘Keki N. Daruwalla’. In this poem, the poet explains the scene of a burning ghat, where the dead body of a man is consigned to the flame of fire.
The poet says that when he was a child, he and his father used to visit the burning ghat of the Hindus. He says that the sight of the burning dead body becomes shocking and dreadful at night. It frightens passers-by.
Some times the limbs of a dead body are left half-burnt, and the redness of fire appears very cruel. The poet is a parsi, who worships fire as a God, but he had to consign his new born into fire, because there was no Tower of silence there. This made him a sinner. He feels guilty for violating the Parsi Code. He regrets that he could not save the fire from committing sin. So, he vows to free the fire from sin of forgetting.
Thus, this poem is a song in praise of fire. Here, the poet shows the importance of fire for the Hindus after their death.