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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE VIADUCT by GORDON BOTTOMLEY

First Line: AND WHEN I FOUND THE NARROWING ESTUARY
Last Line: STACKED WAGGONS, SLOW UNTHINKING SLAVES BETWEEN.
Subject(s): RAILROADS; RAILWAYS; TRAINS;

AND when I found the narrowing estuary
I saw a railway bridge through twilit mist;
It seemed by veils suspended to exist,
But a hushed tide washed under clankingly.

A train from London crossed it in the night:
I woke and saw a tossing burning mane,
And felt some tragic woman passed again
With trailing tresses in dispurposed flight.

Unending luggages dragged past all day,
Piled trucks, tarpaulin mounds, and heavy vans;
Considering this monotony some chance
Steep contour of its iron, sad array

Made me remember thus it must have been
That Caesar's trampling Triumphing appeared --
Elephants heaving, fuming flames upreared,
Stacked waggons, slow unthinking slaves between.



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