Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, IN THE EXPRESS TRAIN, by LUDWIG FULDA


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

IN THE EXPRESS TRAIN, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I hasten by a city lightning-fast
Last Line: My own forgotten life!


I hasten by a city lightning-fast
Here in the rattling train: I see
Streets, houses, people shooting past,
Wagons, lanterns, signs in flight,
Overlapping in my sight;
Blotted, dim they seem to me.
Here I lived once long ago,
Lived for years
In youth's impassioned sacred glow,
In love and hate, in hopes and fears.
Round the corner there--
To the left, by the square--
Lives my one-time worshipped fate;
Behind the walls there, flitting past,
I could almost hold it fast--
No: too late--too late!
The last few houses--the empty plain:
The long-lost world is fled again,
With joys and sorrows great
Of storm-blessed youthful strife.--
I feel as if this moment I
Had like a stranger hurried by
My own forgotten life!





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