Jones, Gwyn Briwnant; Special GWR Train Used by Eisenhower, June 1944; Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/special-gwr-train-used-by-eisenhower-june-1944-161299
Do you have any favorite poems about trains and train journeys? I was compiling such a list – the way one does on a rainy Tuesday in June – when I discovered this gem from C. K Chesterton. What a delightful put down of a very annoying verse that’s been stuck in my head since I was about eight.
Why do you rush through the fields in trains,
Guessing so much and so much.
Why do you flash through the flowery meads,
Fat-head poet that nobody reads;
And why do you know such a frightful lot
About people in gloves and such?
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John Betjeman - he was always writing about trains; Edward Thomas and Adelstrop which is everyone's favourite; and Philip Larkin Whitsun Weddings.
John Betjeman seemed to spend his life hanging about trains and stations. I love this last chunk from the end of one of them:
The old Great Western Railway shakes
The old Great Western Railway spins -
The old Great Western Railway makes
Me very sorry for my sins.
Absolutely! A must for the list. Thanks Peter.
Emily Dickinson #383
I like to see it lap the Miles —
And lick the Valleys up —
And stop to feed itself at Tanks —
And then — prodigious step
Around a Pile of Mountains —
And supercilious peer
In Shanties — by the sides of Roads —
And then a Quarry pare
To fit it's sides
And crawl between
Complaining all the while
In horrid - hooting stanza —
Then chase itself down Hill —
And neigh like Boanerges —
Then — prompter than a Star
Stop — docile and omnipotent
At it's own stable door —
I think literary history decrees we must keep both occurrences of the improper apostrophes in "it's"--but it's still a kind of fun poem.