The Railway Station
The Railway Station
Original Text
The Poems of Archibald Lampman, ed. Duncan Campbell Scott (Toronto: George N. Morang, 1900): 116, as reprinted in The Poems of Archibald Lampman (including At the Long Sault), intro. by Margaret Coulby of Toronto Press, 1974), and from Among the Millet and Other Poems (Ottawa: Durie, 1888).
1The darkness brings no quiet here, the light
2 No waking: ever on my blinded brain
3 The flare of lights, the rush, and cry, and strain,
4The engines' scream, the hiss and thunder smite:
5I see the hurrying crowds, the clasp, the flight,
6 Faces that touch, eyes that are dim with pain:
7 I see the hoarse wheels turn, and the great train
8Move labouring out into the bourneless night.
9So many souls within its dim recesses,
10 So many bright, so many mournful eyes:
11Mine eyes that watch grow fixed with dreams and guesses;
12 What threads of life, what hidden histories,
13What sweet or passionate dreams and dark distresses,
14 What unknown thoughts, what various agonies!
Publication Start Year
1888
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
RPO 1997.
Rhyme
Form