In the last two lines of the first stanza, the speaker informs readers that he has been riding before the narration has begun. Thus, the painted stations “again” slid past his carriage. Stevenson uses an auditory image of the whistling sound coming from the stations when the train crosses them.

The poem is written in iambic tetrameter with a number of variations. Each line more or less contains four iambs; an unstressed foot is followed by a stressed foot. The implementation of trochees (stressed-unstressed) and long anapests (unstressed-unstressed-stresses) imitates the rising and falling rhythm of a train. For instance, the first line can be read as “ Fast-er/ than fai- ries,/ fast-er/ than witch(e)s.” It begins with a trochee followed by an anapest. Then another trochee is followed by an iamb. This fusion of can be seen throughout the text: There are eight programmes in this series . Each of the first 6 programmes profiles a different contemporary children’s poet who introduces and then reads a selection of his or her work. The poem “From a Railway Carriage” was first published in Robert Louis Stevenson’s collection of children’s poetry, A Child’s Garden of Verses, in 1885. It is one of the most popular children’s works. This poem is inspired by Stevenson’s extensive traveling experience across Europe. Due to his ill health, he occasionally had to move to warmer climates to recover. His experience of traveling by train is captured in this poem from the perspective of a child speaker. This piece also describes how it felt while traveling in a railway carriage car in the 19th-century.From a Railway Carriage’ is a very useful poem to use with children who aren’t particularly familiar with poetry. You can use this resource to provide students with an understanding of the use of rhyme schemes and other principle of poetry such as simile and metaphor. If you’re using this resource with older children, it has plenty of space around the text to allow learners to annotate their copy if they choose to. It’s also a great way to spark a class discussion - what is Stevenson trying to tell us in this poem? How does the period it was written in affect our understanding of the poem? More resources on ‘From a Railway Carriage’ This great resource provides learners with their very own copy of ‘From a Railway Carriage’ by the famous Scottish author, Robert Louis Stevenson. The poem describes the view from a railway carriage as it speeds through the countryside. It’s a great way to introduce your learners to poetry, thanks to its simple rhyme scheme and clear imagery. The sheet even includes a fun illustration of a train that pupils can colour in! Stevenson uses several personal metaphors in the poem. For instance, there is a personal metaphor in the phrase, “the green for stringing the daisies!” The “green,” representing grass, is portrayed as a thread to string daisies. To be specific, there is only one instance of metaphor, and it occurs in the last two lines: In the first example, the moving train is compared to troops marching for a battle, and the sights of apparently moving “hill” and “plain” are compared to “driving rain.” Metaphor Journey to the Interior” by Margaret Atwood — In this poem, Atwood describes the road she often takes to roam into the thrilling regions of her mind.

Apart from that, readers can also find the use of consonance, the repetition of consonant sounds in closely placed words. For instance, there is a repetition of the “z” sound at the end of “fairie s,” “witche s,” “Bridge s,” “house s,” “hedge s,” and “ditche s” in lines 1 and 2. Personification Up-Hill” by Christina Rossetti — It’s one of the best-loved poems of Christina Rossetti that describes one speaker’s hesitations on the uphill journey of life. The “mill” and “river” are compared to a “glimpse”. They are liked small clips of the motion picture seen from the railway carriage. AlliterationEach scene slides past the poet so fast that he cannot notice each one of them totally. That’s why he says that the things he sees are like a momentary glimpse or clips of a motion picture. At last, the speaker describes each piece of scenery as a “glimpse” that stays for a short period and then fades forever. While traveling by train, none can notice a particular scene next time. Thus, each journey becomes unique, unraveling newer scenes against the changing canvas of nature.