| James and Mary Ford, eds. Every Day in the Year. 1902. | | | | September 27 | | The Song of the Railroad | | By Richard Monckton Milnes, Lord Houghton (1809–1885) |
| | | | On Sept. 27, 1825, the first railroad in England, the Stockton & Darlington, was thrown open to the public. |
|
|
WHILE every age is crowned with rhyme, | |
| And song is ever young, | |
| The bravest birth of later time | |
| Must not remain unsung; | |
| A poet shall be born to us, | 5 |
| For living men to hail, | |
| Dismounted from old Pegasus | |
| To mount the fiery rail! | |
| |
| When speed and joy go hand in hand, | |
| And loves are side by side, | 10 |
| We are the sunbeams of the land | |
| On which the angels glide; | |
| The husband to his anxious wife, | |
| The friend to friendly care, | |
| The lover to his life of life | 15 |
| On burning wings we bear! | |
| |
| But oft like ships of ill accursed | |
| That sail the solid earth | |
| On sacred parting hours we burst, | |
| Or mar the moment’s mirth; | 20 |
| The dearest and the longest lost | |
| Pass by within a span | |
| Yet know it not; of little cost | |
| We make the heart of man! | |
| |
| Our cry is onward, onward yet— | 25 |
| Hard pace and little pause; | |
| We will not let the world forget | |
| Her nature’s motive laws. | |
| Like her we hasten day by day, | |
| Nor rest at any goal; | 30 |
| The sun himself has moved, they say, | |
| Since planets round him roll! | | | |
|
|
|
