From a Railway Carriage Poem: Class V ICSE English Literature

From a Railway Carriage poem by R.L.( Robert Louis) Stevenson is a poem in English Literature for ICSE Class V students.

This poem describes what the poem sees from the window of a railway carriage when travelling by bus.

From a Railway Carriage: Complete Poem

Faster than fairies, faster than witches,
Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches;
And charging along like troops in a battle,
All through the meadows the horses and cattle:

Explanation: Poet says that the train runs more quickly than the fairies can fly or the witches can move. When train speeds ahead, it seems as the soldiers are attacking enemy in a battle field. The train leaves behind bridges, houses, fences and ditches.. It also leaves behind the green fields where horses and Cattle are grazing.

All of the sights of the hill and the plain
Fly as thick as driving rain;
And ever again, in the wink of an eye,
Painted stations whistle by.

Explanation: Poet says that all the scenes of hill and plain passing by where as quick as the drops of rain. And every short moment, the train was crossing stations, which seemed like painted pictures from the window of the train.

Here is a child who clambers and scrambles,
All by himself and gathering brambles;
Here is a tramp who stands and gazes;
And there is the green for stringing the daisies!

Explanation: The poet sees a child climbing a steep ground by himself with difficulty. The Poet also sees a homeless person who was looking at the train with amazement. The poet also sees women making garlands of daisy flowers.

Here is a cart run away in the road
Lumping along with man and load;
And here is a mill and there is a river:
Each a glimpse and gone for ever!

Explanation: The poet sees a loaded cart with the driver sitting on the top of the load, moving slowly on the road. He sees a water mill and river. Everything that he sees disappears quickly and probably he may never see them again.

From a Railway Carriage: Questions and Answers

Question: Tick the correct sequence in which these things are listed in the poem.

• a. stations, a child, a mill, a river, a cart. [ ]
• b. a child, stations, a river, a mill, a cart. [ ]
• c. stations, a child, a cart, a mill, a river. [Correct Answer]
• d. a cart, stations, a child, a mill, a river. [ ]

Read the lines and answer the following questions:

a. “All of the sights of the hills and the plain Fly as thick as driving rain;”

Question: List five sights that the poet has mentioned in the poem.

Answer: The five sights that the poet mentioned in the poem are – bridges and houses; hedges and ditches; the meadows and the hills; and plains.

Question: Why does the poet compare the things to ‘driving rain’?

Answer: The poet compares the things he sees to driving rain because as the train runs forward, those sights came from the opposite direction as the rain comes driving.

“And ever again, in the wink of an eye, Painted stations whistle by.”

Question: In your own words, give the meaning of ‘in an wink of an eye’.

Answer: The meaning of ‘in an wink of an eye’, means ‘all of a sudden’ or ‘in no time’ or ‘quickly’.

Question: ‘Painted stations whistle by’. What is actually whistle by? What is not moving?

Answer: The train is actually whistling by. The station is not moving.

Question: After these lines, the poet describes three people who he sees. Who are they?

Answer: The three people are – i) a child, ii) a tramp, and iii) the man in the cart.

Question: Draw up a list of all the words in the poem that describe movement.

Answer: The words in poem that describe movement are – ‘charging along’ and ‘fly as thick as driving rain’.

Question: To show the speed of the train, the poet says that the things he sees were speeding by. Were there things really speeding? What do you think of this idea?

Answer: The things that the poet is talking about were not really speeding. They were still but the train was moving forward giving an impression that those things were moving. The poet has very skilfully used this idea of looking things from inside a railway carriage. When we are on a railway carriage, we feel we are still and everything is speeding by, but the truth is that our railway carriage moves forward and those things are still.

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Question: What does ‘each a glimpse and gone for ever’ mean? How do you think the poet felt as he wrote these lines?

Answer: ‘Each a glimpse and gone for ever’ means the things that the poet is seeing from the window is getting left behind as the train goes ahead. And he will probably not see them ever again. I think the poet is feeling a bit sad about it, that he may not see them ever again.