Slowly I smoke and hug my knee,
The while a witless masquerade
Of things that only children see
Floats in a mist of light and shade:
They pass, a flimsy cavalcade,
And with a weak, remindful glow,
The falling embers break and fade,
As one by one the phantoms go.
Then, with a melancholy glee
To think where once my fancy strayed,
I muse on what the years may be
Whose coming tales are all unsaid,
Till tongs and shovel, snugly laid
Within their shadowed niches, grow
By grim degrees to pick and spade,
As one by one the phantoms go.
Tongs and shovel is a reference to tools that are used to help keep a fire burning. The following words, “snugly laid” suggest that the tools aren’t being used anymore. Fire is often symbolic for inner light and can reference “Divine Fire” or passion within. If the tools are laid down, no one is trying to preserve the fire and it will likely die out. 

Ballade by the Fire