To poke a wood fire is more solid enjoyment than almost anything else in the world.

Warner’s line elevates a humble, domestic act—stirring a wood fire—into a model of “solid enjoyment.” The pleasure is tactile and immediate: heat, light, sound, and the visible response of the flames to one’s small intervention. Implicitly, it contrasts durable satisfactions with more fashionable or abstract amusements, suggesting that contentment often lies in simple, embodied routines rather than in novelty or status. The remark also fits Warner’s reputation as a genial essayist attentive to everyday comforts and the moral psychology of leisure: tending a fire becomes a miniature emblem of self-sufficiency, calm, and the restorative power of home.