From a Railway Carriage

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Robert Louis Stevenson is an incredibly famous writer, and learners are sure to come across his writing as they move through school. Because he’s most famous for his novels, poems like ‘From a Railway Carriage’ give us an idea of another side of the writer - he really was multi-talented!

The final two programmes focus on classic poetry and include a selection of well-known poems often taught at Key Stage 2. These poems are read by the actors Maxine Peake and Julian Rhind-Tutt. Using the audio 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. Robert Louis Stevenson (13 November 1850 – 3 Dec 1894) was a Scottish novelist, poet and essayist. A celebrity in his lifetime, Stevenson's critical reputation has fluctuated since his death, though today his works are held in general acclaim. He is currently [ when?] ranked as the 26th most translated author in the world. 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:The repetition of a similar sound at the beginning of neighboring words is called alliteration. It is used to create internal rhyming. This device is used in the following instances: 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: Night Journey” by Theodore Roethke — Read how it feels while traveling by train at midnight. Roethke beautifully describes the nocturnal beauty of nature in this poem. 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’ Stevenson’s “From a Railway Carriage” is written from the perspective of a child who is traveling by train and capturing the external world from his carriage. He is quite amazed to experience the speed with which the train marches forward like troops in a battle. It moves faster than the fairies and witches collectively. From his carriage, he sees how the sights of the hill and plain fly past. The painted stations whistle by in a wink.

to support reading of individual poems – the image can act as a visual reminder of topics, themes or narratives for students while they are completing work on poems; Each 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. From a Railway Carriage is a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson, included within his 1885 collection A Child's Garden of Verses. [1]You’ve read his poetry, but what about the man himself? Our Robert Louis Stevenson Information Sheet provides the story of the great man’s life along with some surprising and fascinating facts You can encourage your learners to think more deeply about word choice in Stevenson’s poem with this ‘From a Railway Carriage’ Missing words Activity, which lets pupils provide some of their own words and see how it changes the meaning This device is used in two instances in the last stanza: “And there is the green for stringing the daisies!” and “Each a glimpse and gone for ever!” These lines convey the speaker’s amazement at the scenes.

This device is used in a number of instances; in the first stanza, there is a repetition of “and” throughout. Such repetition is also called polysyndeton. The recurrence of the conjunction signifies a sense of continuity. In the second stanza, Stevenson uses the word “Here” at the beginning of alternative lines until line 5. Rhetorical Exclamation The poem “From a Railway Carriage” begins with a simile: “Faster than fairies” and “faster than witches.” Stevenson describes how the fairies and witches are not as fast as the train. This device is also used in lines 3 and 6: Stevenson employs visual and kinesthetic imagery in the first stanza. He visually depicts the scene that the speaker witnesses from his carriage. Through kinesthetic images, he describes the apparent motion of bridges, houses, hedges, etc. The last line of the first stanza, “Painted stations whistle by,” contains auditory imagery. This line refers to the whistle’s sound coming from the station when the train crosses it. The second stanza also contains similar imagery. As the train moves hurriedly, the speaker cannot hear the sound of others outside or hear the smell of daisies. He can only capture their acts when the train moves past them. Besides, Stevenson uses organic imagery in lines 12 and 16 to convey the speaker’s inner feelings of joy and wonder. Introduce your kids to another of Stevenson’s poems with our PowerPoint on ‘Windy Nights’, a poem that makes fantastic use of imagery and descriptive language to evoke the sound of the wind 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!The programmes can be used in a variety of ways. You can listen to them in their entirety or listen to and focus on one poem at a time. Students can read the text of the poem before, during or after listening to the recording and there are suggestions in these notes for pre-, during-, and post- listening activities. Using the images: