When paraphrasing a poem, one needs to look at the words and determine two things: What the author intended them to mean and what one sees for oneself in the words. For example, in the first stanza we are told that the scene is not going to be in the present.
"Across the years he could recall
His father one way best of all."
The person is now grown and remembering his father. He has one particular memory that he likes to look back upon.
"In the stillest hour of night
The boy awakened to a light."
He is now thinking back when he was a boy and there is a light in his room which caused him to wake up.
"Half in dreams, he saw his sire
With his great hands full of fire."
The child is not fully awake so it looks to him like his father's hands are aflame or filled with something burning.
"The man had struck a match to see
If his son slept peacefully."
His father had come in to check on his son, but the room was dark. Not wanting to wake the child, his father lit a match that would create just enough light to illuminate the child' face.
If you take each stanza and read through them, you will be able to create your own words to tell what each line says.
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