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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE ROUNDHOUSE, by WILLIAM ROSE BENET Poet Analysis Poet's Biography
First Line: Rembrandt alone could paint this mammoth shed
Last Line: Bound by a schedule to the clamoring hour!
Subject(s): Railroads; Railways; Trains
First Line: Rembrandt alone could paint this mammoth shed
Last Line: Bound by a schedule to the clamoring hour!
Subject(s): Railroads; Railways; Trains
Rembrandt alone could paint this mammoth shed
Filled with weird hissing like some hydra's lair,
Where thick smoke eddies through the sunless air
And webs of steel curve upward overhead.
These floors run burning oils. These fires are fed
From pits of Tartarus. Against the glare
High-shouldered, coal-black gryphons crouch and stare.
Their heavy panting wakes a sense of dread.
Yet stranger far, the human ants in hordes
Who swarm like imps in some infernal masque,
Seeming to guide each awful shape of power
As th' elemental spirits' potent lords, --
Yet only toiling at their common task,
Bound by a schedule to the clamoring hour!
Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!
Other Poems of Interest...
THE RAILWAY by ARTHUR CHRISTOPHER BENSON
WHAT WE DID TO WHAT WE WERE by PHILIP LEVINE
BURYING GROUND BY THE TIES by ARCHIBALD MACLEISH
WAY-STATION by ARCHIBALD MACLEISH
TWILIGHT TRAIN by EILEEN MYLES
THE CAVEMAN ON THE TRAIN by JOHN FREDERICK NIMS
THE FALCONER OF GOD by WILLIAM ROSE BENET