We couldn’t compile a list of the greatest railway poems and not include something from Sir John Betjeman, who did so much to try to preserve Victorian railway stations and wrote and presented the celebrated Metroland documentary. He is the author of, among others, The Secret Library: A Book-Lovers’ Journey Through Curiosities of History and The Great War, The Waste Land and the Modernist Long Poem. All through the meadows the horses and cattle: Thanks to the classic film which featured it – and for which it was specially written – ‘Night Mail’ remains one of Auden’s best-known poems. ‘From a Railway Carriage’ is a masterly piece of versification, using its sprightly rhythm to evoke the movement of a train. Baffle the threat, bright Scene, from Orresthead Here are ten of the finest poems about trains from nearly two centuries of English literature. The name, because one afternoon Thanks, Michelle – a great addition to the list. We’ve offered a close analysis of ‘In a Station of the Metro’ here. There is not much that I can do,. Image (top): Great Central Railway by Duncan Harris, 2009, via Wikimedia Commons. Nonetheless, Wordsworth’s impassioned plea shows poetry and the railways beginning an uneasy coexistence. Page Ever since the advent of the railways in the 1820s, poets have been drawn to trains and railways, whether because they saw them as a threat to the English landscape, or they sought to capture the romance of rail travel, or they saw the potential of the train journey to carry significance beyond the literal. ‘Changing at York’ focuses on the poet’s calling home late one night to break the news to his father that the poet’s mother has died, and how he heard his father ‘for the first time ever, crying’. You’ve missed some of my favourites, but there are so many good railway poems. And charging along like troops in a battle, by Archibald Lampman. 15.8k views +list. A nice compilation which would chug along in our memory for a long time! At every new station the train stops, Larkin notices newlyweds getting aboard ready to go on their honeymoons, and he begins to muse upon the significance of this train journey for the young couples. The Railway Station. ’Mid his paternal fields at random thrown? Faster than fairies, faster than witches, The greatest poems about trains and railways selected by Dr Oliver Tearle. Autoplay next video. That concludes this pick of the best poems about trains and railways. 47 Railroad Poems ranked in order of popularity and relevancy. Fly as thick as driving rain; Travel – Edna St Vincent Millay This poem was fortuitously discovered after I'd settled on the title for my anthology. All of the sights of the hill and the plain The poem was written, not during or immediately after … Ezra Pound, ‘In a Station of the Metro’. Some are children’s poems but fun never the less! Although McGonagall presumably only makes it on the list as ‘best’ in an ironic sense! Robert Louis Stevenson, ‘From a Railway Carriage’. Like many of Harrison’s poems about the death of his parents, this one is brilliantly observed, and very moving. My dear railway station, my treasure Of meetings and partings, my friend In times of hard trials and pleasure, Your favours have been without end. Thank you so much! The poem, then, had its origins in an unexpected event, a chance occurrence, that occurred one summer’s day in 1914. This is a jolly romp through a railway gazetteer, seeking out station names that not only scan but also give us a sense of the decidedly odd in English topography. In youth, and ’mid the busy world kept pure The origins of the poem lie in an event that took place on 24 June 1914, while English poet Edward Thomas (1878-1917) was on the Oxford to Worcester express train. One Track Mind – Sophie Hannah Peter Ashley's top 10 railway poems Tue 13 Nov 2007 19.00 EST Peter Ashley is the editor of Railway Rhymes, an Everyman collection of poems celebrating the railway … Like Pound, F. S. Flint (1885-1960) was an Imagist, though he and Pound disagreed over the precise form an Imagist poem should take. In this poem, Plath uses a train journey to explore her struggle to regain her sense of self and emerge ‘pure as a baby’ – the journey described is, then, both literal and metaphorical. Tucked away in our subconscious minds is an idyllic vision. But one thing uniting them both – and, for that matter, their fellow Imagist, Richard Aldington – is an attraction to underground railway networks as a subject for poetry. I'd sit at your side for a moment - Thomas would later write up his observations into this fine, understated poem, which has since become a national favourite. Pound arrived at this two-line poem in 1913, after writing a much longer draft which he then cut down, line by line. Schemes of retirement sown Inspired by an August train journey from Hull to Loughborough, ‘The Whitsun Weddings’ is Larkin’s fictionalised version of this railway journey, transposed to Whitsun weekend and a train bound for London. Sylvia Plath, ‘Getting There’. It was late June. Enter your email address to subscribe to this site and receive notifications of new posts by email. The other two railway poems by Betjeman included in the link above are also well worth reading. In doing so, he became one of the first high-profile poets to write about the arrival of the railways – though admittedly, he is writing about the land before the railway was built. Railway Station Poem by Boris Pasternak. (theinkthatspeaks.blogspot.com) On the Projected Kendal and Windermere Railway, a close analysis of ‘In a Station of the Metro’ here, he and Pound disagreed over the precise form an Imagist poem, The Secret Library: A Book-Lovers’ Journey Through Curiosities of History, The Great War, The Waste Land and the Modernist Long Poem. No one left and no one came The Railway Station poem by Archibald Lampman. John Betjeman, ‘Baker St Station Buffet’. Get us back on track with your recommendations below…. The author of this article, Dr Oliver Tearle, is a literary critic and lecturer in English at Loughborough University. My dear railway station, my treasure Of meetings and partings, my friend In times of hard trials and pleasure, Your favours have been without end. We see ourselves on a long, long trip that almost spans the continent. So many souls within its dim recesses, So many bright, so many mournful eyes: Mine eyes that watch grow fixed with dreams and guesses; What threads of life, what hidden histories, What sweet or passionate dreams and dark distresses, What unknown thoughts, what various agonies!