Analysis of In the Train

James Thomson 1700 (Port Glasgow) – 1748 (London)



AS we rush, as we rush in the Train,
   The trees and the houses go wheeling back,
But the starry heavens above the plain
   Come flying on our track.

All the beautiful stars of the sky,
   The silver doves of the forest of Night,
Over the dull earth swarm and fly,
   Companions of our flight.

We will rush ever on without fear;
   Let the goal be far, the flight be fleet!
For we carry the Heavens with us, dear,
   While the Earth slips from our feet!


Scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF
Poetic Form Traditional rhyme
Quatrain 
Metre 111111001 0100101101 1010100101 1101101 101001101 0101101011 10011101 0101101 111101011 101110111 1110010111 10111101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 462
Words 88
Sentences 5
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 12
Letters per line (avg) 28
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 112
Words per stanza (avg) 29
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 25, 2023

26 sec read
442

James Thomson

James Thomson, who wrote under the pseudonym Bysshe Vanolis, was a Scottish Victorian-era poet famous primarily for the long poem The City of Dreadful Night, an expression of bleak pessimism in a dehumanized, uncaring urban environment. more…

All James Thomson poems | James Thomson Books

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