From A Railway Carriage – by Robert Louis Stevenson
Class: 6th Standard | Subject: English | Type: Poem | Syllabus: SCERT New Syllabus (2nd Term, Unit 2)
About the Poet
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson (13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, musician and travel writer. He is best known for his famous works such as Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, and A Child's Garden of Verses. The poem "From A Railway Carriage" is from A Child's Garden of Verses (1885), a collection of poetry written for children that captures the wonder and imagination of childhood experiences.
The 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:
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.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!
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 forever!
— Robert Louis Stevenson
Summary and Analysis
In "From A Railway Carriage," Robert Louis Stevenson vividly captures the experience of looking out of a train window as the landscape rushes past. The poem is written from the perspective of a train passenger, likely a child, who is thrilled by the speed of the journey. The first stanza describes the incredible speed of the train, comparing it to fairies and witches. Various elements of the countryside — bridges, houses, hedges, ditches, meadows with horses and cattle, hills, and plains — all flash by in rapid succession. The painted stations pass in "the wink of an eye," emphasizing how quickly the train moves through them.
The second stanza shifts focus to individual scenes and people glimpsed from the train window. The poet notices a child climbing and gathering brambles (blackberry bushes), a tramp standing by the road gazing at the passing train, a green field where someone could string daisies, a cart bumping along the road with its driver and load, a mill, and a river. Each of these images appears only for a brief moment before vanishing — "Each a glimpse and gone forever!" This final line perfectly sums up the fleeting nature of scenes viewed from a fast-moving train.
The poem is notable for its rhythm, which mimics the clickety-clack sound of a train moving on its tracks. The fast-paced metre and use of rhyming couplets (witches/ditches, battle/cattle, scrambles/brambles, gazes/daisies, road/load, river/forever) give the poem an energetic, rushing quality that mirrors the speed of the train itself. Stevenson masterfully uses literary devices like simile, imagery, and onomatopoeia to transport the reader into the railway carriage alongside him.
Glossary
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Charge | To make a rush at or sudden attack upon a person or thing |
| Clamber | Climb or move in an awkward and laborious way using both hands and feet |
| Brambles | A prickly scrambling shrub of the rose family, especially a blackberry bush |
| Tramp | A person who travels from place to place on foot in search of work or as a beggar |
| Stringing | Hang so that it stretches in a long line |
| Lumping | Carry with difficulty |
| Glimpse | See or perceive briefly or partially |
| Meadows | A piece of grassland, especially one used for hay |
| Hedges | A fence or boundary formed by closely growing bushes or shrubs |
| Ditches | A narrow channel dug in the ground, typically used for drainage |
Literary Devices
- Simile: "Faster than fairies, faster than witches" — compares the speed of the train to supernatural beings; "charging along like troops in a battle" — compares horses and cattle to soldiers; "Fly as thick as driving rain" — compares the passing sights to heavy rain.
- Imagery: The poet paints vivid visual pictures — a child gathering brambles, a tramp gazing, a cart lumping along, a mill and a river — all seen briefly from the train window.
- Rhyming Couplets: witches/ditches, battle/cattle, plain/rain, eye/by, scrambles/brambles, gazes/daisies, road/load, river/forever — these create a musical, rhythmic effect.
- Rhythm & Metre: The fast, galloping rhythm of the poem imitates the rhythmic movement and sound of a train on its tracks.
- Alliteration: "hill and the plain," "horses and cattle," "man and load," "mill... river" — repetition of sounds adds to the musical quality.
- Anaphora: The repetition of "Here is..." and "And there is..." in the second stanza creates a sense of rapid enumeration of fleeting sights.
Themes
- Speed and Motion: The central theme is the exhilarating speed of a train journey and how everything appears to rush past the window.
- Fleeting Nature of Experiences: The poem reminds us that many moments in life are like glimpses from a train — brief and gone forever.
- Childlike Wonder: The poem captures the excitement and wonder a child feels while watching the world zoom by from a train window.
- Rural Countryside Life: The poem showcases scenes of English rural life — meadows, horses, cattle, mills, rivers, children, and carts on the road.
- The Beauty of Ordinary Things: Even simple, everyday scenes become magical and interesting when viewed from a moving train.