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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE WATCHERS, by BERTON BRALEY Poet's Biography First Line: The trains go roaring past by day and flashing by at night Last Line: Who never know the world is wide—and do not want to know! Subject(s): Railroads; Travel; Vision; Watchmen; Railways; Trains; Journeys; Trips | |||
The trains go roaring past by day and flashing by at night Bearing adventurers of trade or seekers of delight, While from the little houses that front the right of way There gaze the folks whom destiny has planted there to stay. And some are wistful, wondering how it would seem to be Click-clicking over shining rails, of every fetter free, They thrill with dreaming vision of towns and fields afar Which come to those who flicker past upon a Pullman car. Yet most of those who watch the trains are scarcely stirred at all, For them these magic chariots have neither spell nor thrall; Their passage only serves to break the round of things and then Dull-eyed the watchers go about their humdrum life again. No longing leaps within their breasts, no envy fills their glance, They never see in rushing trains the lure of high romance, They only mutter, "she's on time" or "she's a little late," While great adventure thunders past their very door-yard gate! Oh, sad it is for watchers who are wistful as they gaze On many windowed caravans that sweep down metaled ways, Yet though they never take that trail the dream is theirs to hold, The thought to nurse and cherish and the vision to unfold, But for the other watchers, the dull phlegmatic kind, Theirs is the greater tragedy, for they are wholly blind, And what could be so sad as they whose lives are bleak and slow Who never know the world is wide—and do not want to know! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...RICHARD, WHAT'S THAT NOISE? by RICHARD HOWARD LOOKING FOR THE GULF MOTEL by RICHARD BLANCO RIVERS INTO SEAS by LYNDA HULL DESTINATIONS by JOSEPHINE JACOBSEN THE ONE WHO WAS DIFFERENT by RANDALL JARRELL THE CONFESSION OF ST. JIM-RALPH by DENIS JOHNSON SESTINA: TRAVEL NOTES by WELDON KEES TO H. B. (WITH A BOOK OF VERSE) by MAURICE BARING |
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