Stephen Spender’s ‘The Express’ glorifies the express train. The train
here is a symbol of the modern industrial civilization.
The poem begins with a description of the movement of the express
train from a station. Its sound of horn suggesting its movement from
the station and its slow royal movement is likened or is compared to
the movement of a ‘queen’. This comparison that is hinted in the
opening lines is continued in the next lines when the poet describes
how the train passes "without bowing and with restrained unconcern".
Just as crowds lineup humbly in the passage of the ‘queen’, the
houses, the gas works and the graveyard lineup in the passage of the
train.
Later, the majesty turns into mystery when the queen-like express
leaves the town and enters the countryside. The poet now finds the
train as self possessed and brilliant. Consequently, the train now
begins to sing. The song of the train has its movement, low and loud
and screaming and deafening, the train acquires a lightness that the
wheels move as though in air.
The poet attributes human emotion to the Express when he says that
it experiences new happiness as it passes. Several strange shapes,
broad curves and 'trajectories from guns' are conjured up to describe
its movement. The movement never seems to end but goes beyond
England, beyond Europe and beyond the world. None can check its
progress. But when it is far away and in darkness, there is a low
streams-line brightness that it creates to illuminate the hills as well as
the darkness of the world.
In the final lines the poet becomes more lyrical when he compares the
train to a flaming comet in the sky and says that the train’s music is so
entrancing that it cannot be excelled by a bird's song.
here is a symbol of the modern industrial civilization.
The poem begins with a description of the movement of the express
train from a station. Its sound of horn suggesting its movement from
the station and its slow royal movement is likened or is compared to
the movement of a ‘queen’. This comparison that is hinted in the
opening lines is continued in the next lines when the poet describes
how the train passes "without bowing and with restrained unconcern".
Just as crowds lineup humbly in the passage of the ‘queen’, the
houses, the gas works and the graveyard lineup in the passage of the
train.
Later, the majesty turns into mystery when the queen-like express
leaves the town and enters the countryside. The poet now finds the
train as self possessed and brilliant. Consequently, the train now
begins to sing. The song of the train has its movement, low and loud
and screaming and deafening, the train acquires a lightness that the
wheels move as though in air.
The poet attributes human emotion to the Express when he says that
it experiences new happiness as it passes. Several strange shapes,
broad curves and 'trajectories from guns' are conjured up to describe
its movement. The movement never seems to end but goes beyond
England, beyond Europe and beyond the world. None can check its
progress. But when it is far away and in darkness, there is a low
streams-line brightness that it creates to illuminate the hills as well as
the darkness of the world.
In the final lines the poet becomes more lyrical when he compares the
train to a flaming comet in the sky and says that the train’s music is so
entrancing that it cannot be excelled by a bird's song.
