The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #122032 Message #2673699
Posted By: GUEST, Sminky
07-Jul-09 - 06:33 AM
Thread Name: Songs About the Disappearing of the Trains
Subject: RE: Songs About the Disappearing of the Trains
A prediction by Alexander Anderson, railwayman and poet, in 1877:
FINIS.
THE swart smoke gem with his heart aglow, And all his giant strength and vigour strung, To help our toiling lower gods below— He still remains unsung.
I have but caught, in leaping to the side To let him pass in smoke and thunder, dim, Faint half-heard echoes from that rushing tide, Of song which follows him.
But the keen years that for our coming kind, Keep greater triumphs than to-day we claim, Will bring a poet in whose heart the wind Of song will leap like flame.
He, born into a richer newer time, And with a wealthier past behind, will sing, Our wild fire-monster blurr'd with smoke and grime, Traffic's sole lord and king:
In music worthy of that soul of fire, Which in him glows and leaps Like lightnings, ere they cleave in sullen ire Some jagged cloud that sweeps
The hills in muttered fear. My own dim song Will fade and sink, as sinks a fitful wind, Before the grander music, wild and strong Of him who comes behind.