The poem is about a train journey and the fleeting impressions and scenes that a passenger observes while traveling by train. The poet captures the experience of looking out from a moving train window and seeing various landscapes, objects, and people pass by rapidly. The poem emphasizes how quickly these scenes change and disappear from view. As the train moves swiftly through the countryside, the passenger catches glimpses of green fields with swaying paddy plants, birds flying in formation, wide rivers with branches and waterfalls, houses, bridges, hedges, ditches, cattle, and meadows. Each sight is momentary and soon replaced by another, creating a sense of continuous motion and change. The poem celebrates the excitement and wonder of a train journey, where the world outside becomes a series of vivid but brief images that leave lasting impressions on the observer's mind.
The train is faster than fairies and witches. The poet uses this comparison to emphasize the remarkable speed of the train, which was a modern marvel of transportation during the time the poem was written. By comparing the train's speed to magical beings known for their swiftness, the poet highlights how impressively fast the train travels. The poet mentions bridges and houses, hedges and ditches because these are the various landscape features and structures that the train crosses and passes by during its journey. These elements represent the different types of scenery and obstacles that exist along the railway route. As the train moves rapidly through the countryside, it crosses over bridges, passes by houses and buildings, goes through hedges and ditches, and travels across meadows where horses and cattle graze. All these features are encountered and left behind in quick succession, emphasizing the speed and continuous motion of the train journey.
The child is outside the train, away from the railway track, in the countryside or fields. The child is not a passenger on the train but someone observed from the train window. Gathering brambles means collecting blackberries or the thorny branches of bramble plants. Brambles are wild plants that grow in hedges and fields and produce blackberries, which are edible berries. The child in the poem is engaged in this simple activity of picking brambles, unaware of or indifferent to the fast-moving train passing by, representing a contrast between the slow, leisurely pace of the child's activity and the rapid speed of modern train travel.
In the wink of an eye means very quickly, in an instant, or in the blink of an eye. Painted stations whistle by means that the brightly colored or decorated railway stations pass by the train very rapidly while the train makes its whistling sound. The stations, which are painted in particular colors and designs, appear and disappear from the passenger's view almost instantaneously due to the high speed of the train. The word whistle refers both to the sound the train makes and the swift, fleeting manner in which the stations pass by the window, emphasizing the speed and transient nature of the journey.
Each refers to every sight, scene, or object seen by the passengers from the train window as they travel. It is gone forever because the train is moving at a very fast speed, and once a particular sight passes by the window, it is left far behind and can never be seen again from that same journey. The rapid motion of the train means that every landscape feature, person, animal, or building that the passenger observes is only visible for a brief moment before it disappears from view permanently. This emphasizes the fleeting and temporary nature of the impressions gained during a train journey, where each moment brings new sights that are quickly replaced by others.
The poet shares his experience of a Railway Journey with us. He says that the train runs faster than the fairies and witches. The bridges, houses, rows of thorny plants, and ditches pass by in a moment. It rushes through common grasslands where horses and cattle are grazing. Painted stations, a child gathering blackberries a homeless person who stares at the train, garlands of daisies, a loaded cart, a river, and a mill all pass by in a very short moment.
There is definitely a connection between the rhyming words and rhythms of the train. We hear rising and falling the sounds of rhythms while the train is running.
Eg: Faster than fairies, faster than witches Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches.
We hear rhythms in the above two lines while reading them.
D. Fill in the blanks to complete the summary.
Ever since their introduction, the sentences and their unique rhythms have attracted poets. In this poem, the poet shares his experience of the train track with us. He presents natural scenes seen from the window of a railway carriage. The sound is regular and steady but the scenes from the window of the train are constantly changing. The poem’s rhythm and phrases bring the joy of a railway journey. The poet looks out of the window at the passing images outside. Every line we see here is a quick account of something seen for a moment. The line that best sums up is the final one: “Each a glimpse and gone forever!”.
I can help you to cross the river – bridge
I can border your garden – hedges
I can alert you – whistle
I can carry you – cart
You can ride on me – horse
You can climb on me – scramble
You can lay down on me – meadow
You can play with me – child
Appreciation Questions
F. Work in pairs:
A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two things. Similes explicitly use connecting words such as ‘like’ and ‘as’.
eg.‘as cool as’, ‘like a child’
The similes used in the poem are like troops in a battle and as thick as driving rain. The simile like troops in a battle is used to describe how the horses and cattle charge along the meadows in a rapid and forceful manner, similar to soldiers moving together in a battle formation. The simile as thick as driving rain is used to describe how numerous and densely packed the daisies are in the fields. Both similes effectively convey vivid imagery and help the reader visualize the scenes the poet observes from the train. The choice of which simile is most appealing depends on personal preference, but the simile like troops in a battle is particularly effective because it captures the sense of movement and energy that characterizes the entire poem.
The rhyming words from the poem are witches and ditches, scrambles and brambles, battle and cattle, gazes and daisies, plain and rain, road and load, eye and by, and river and forever. These rhyming pairs are distributed throughout the poem and create a musical quality to the verse. The rhyming scheme follows an aabb pattern in many sections, where consecutive lines rhyme with each other. For example, witches rhymes with ditches, and scrambles rhymes with brambles. This consistent rhyming pattern helps create rhythm and makes the poem more memorable and enjoyable to read. The rhymes also reinforce the sense of movement and flow that mirrors the motion of the train itself, making the poem's form complement its subject matter effectively.
The train is moving faster than fairies and witches. The poet uses this comparison to emphasize the extraordinary speed of the train, which was considered a remarkable technological achievement. By comparing the train's velocity to magical and swift beings from folklore, the poet conveys a sense of wonder and amazement at how fast the train travels. The rhyming scheme used in these lines is aabb, which means the first and second lines rhyme with each other, and the third and fourth lines rhyme with each other. Specifically, witches rhymes with ditches, and battle rhymes with cattle. This rhyming pattern creates a rhythmic and musical quality to the poem, making it pleasant to read aloud and helping to emphasize the rapid movement and energy of the train journey.
The train is charging along like troops in a battle. The train is compared with troops in a battle because both move with great speed, force, and energy. Just as soldiers charge forward in a battle with power and momentum, the train rushes ahead rapidly along the railway tracks. This comparison helps the reader understand the swift and forceful movement of the train as it travels through the landscape.
The sights mentioned here are the views of the hill and the plain that the passenger sees from the moving train. These include trees, fields, houses, and other landscape features. The poet compares these sights to driving rain because they pass by so quickly and in such large numbers. Just as driving rain falls heavily and continuously, the sights fly past the train window thick and fast, one after another. The word 'driving' refers to rain that is driven forcefully by wind, moving at great speed. The comparison emphasizes how rapidly the scenery changes and disappears from view as the train moves at high speed, making it impossible for the passenger to focus on any single sight for long.
The child clambers and scrambles over the ground to gather brambles, which are thorny bushes that bear blackberries. Yes, the child is alone, doing this activity by himself without any help or company from others. The child moves in a playful and energetic manner, climbing and scrambling through the bushes to collect the berries.
A tramp is a person who travels from place to place on foot.
b) What does he look at?
He looks at the running train.
The sight described here is a cart.
b) What does ‘Lumping’ mean?
Lumping means carrying with difficulty.