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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE MIDNIGHT MAIL, by WILLIAM HURD HILLYER
First Line: Resonant, full, and deep
Last Line: That wait for the midnight mail!
Subject(s): Messages & Messengers; Postal Service; Postmen; Post Office; Mail; Mailmen
First Line: Resonant, full, and deep
Last Line: That wait for the midnight mail!
Subject(s): Messages & Messengers; Postal Service; Postmen; Post Office; Mail; Mailmen
RESONANT, full, and deep
Is the voice of the Midnight Mail;
It rolls through the shadowy realms of sleep
When the high moon gleams on the rail.
It startles the drowsing oak,
And the clustered pines reply,
And the gray battalions of goblin smoke
Hang moveless under the sky.
But, oh, not the lordly notes
That waken the dreaming hill,
Nor the cloud-white plume that backward floats,
Nor the clamor that warns, "I kill" —
Not the drifting smoke above,
Nor the transient furnace-glare, —
But the freightage of sorrow and joy and love
Which the Midnight Mail doth bear!
The great, swift wheels — the long
Yellow chain of squares agleam —
It is not for these that the poet's song
Is blent with the roar of steam.
Not the triumph of splendid arts,
Nor the prince of the passionless rail, —
But the anxious eyes and the beating hearts
That wait for the Midnight Mail!
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