Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Dorianne Laux?s “Children’s Train” captures a transformative moment of existential awakening through the lens of a train ride, as children move from playful anticipation to a fleeting confrontation with mortality. Laux deftly blends sensory imagery, psychological insight, and a subtle narrative arc to explore themes of innocence, fear, and transcendence.

The poem begins with the children?s anticipation as the train approaches a tunnel. The deliberate pacing mirrors their buildup of excitement: they "gear up to scream," pulling "the darkening air into their lungs." This line sets up an interplay between light and dark, presence and absence, which will define the poem. The description of the light withdrawing—“in stages,” slipping away before leaping “like spooked deer”—imbues the moment with a sense of inevitability, as if the light’s retreat is both natural and urgent. The imagery is cinematic, capturing the gradual loss of visibility as the train plunges into darkness.

Initially, the children respond to the tunnel with predictable bravado. They “squeal,” “poke,” and “pinch,” embodying a playful resistance to the encroaching dark. However, as the tunnel envelops them completely, the poem shifts in tone. The darkness erases the familiar—the “boney pilings” and “ghosts of windows”—and with it, their sense of control. The metaphoric hand of death "squeezed their silly mouths shut," marking a transition from innocence to a moment of profound vulnerability. This shift is palpable as their "breath chilled and caught," a physical manifestation of their fear.

The middle of the poem is dominated by the overwhelming sensory deprivation of the tunnel. The children are “blind and dumb, deafened” by the grinding wheels of the train. The imagery here evokes confinement and annihilation: the train cars are “heavy as caskets,” and the children feel their “borders…recede,” their very being dissolving into “warm pits of fear.” The poem suggests a moment of ego death, a stripping away of their identities and a confrontation with the void. This terrifying experience mirrors an existential crisis, where the children confront the fragility of existence.

The return of light signals a rebirth, and the poem’s tone shifts once more. As the “lit ribs of the tunnel return,” the children reemerge from the darkness, their faces “luminous, filmed with sweat.” The imagery of light here is redemptive, offering clarity and renewal. Yet, they are not unchanged. The children are “emptied, awed by an inkling that they might not live forever.” This epiphany introduces the inevitability of mortality into their previously untroubled consciousness.

Laux’s description of their posture—“hands folded in their laps, a posture curiously religious”—is particularly evocative. The experience of darkness and fear has instilled in them a sense of reverence, as though they have undergone a rite of passage. The phrase “curiously religious” underscores the paradox of their response: they are too young to articulate the spiritual dimensions of what they’ve felt, yet their posture reflects a primal understanding of life?s gravity. Their awe is both childlike and deeply human, an instinctive acknowledgment of forces beyond their control.

The final lines, “as they are pulled / into the frightening brilliance of the world,” encapsulate the transformative power of the experience. The “frightening brilliance” suggests both the beauty and the terror of awareness. The children have been momentarily disoriented, their playful naivety disrupted, but they have also been given a glimpse of something larger—perhaps the fragility, mystery, or intensity of existence itself.

Structurally, the poem mirrors the experience it describes, moving from light to darkness and back to light. The enjambment propels the reader forward, mimicking the train’s relentless motion, while the shifts in tone—from playful to ominous to reflective—chart the emotional journey of the children. The poem’s language is precise and evocative, blending tactile, auditory, and visual imagery to immerse the reader in the children?s perspective.

“Children’s Train” is a masterful exploration of a fleeting yet profound moment in which innocence brushes against mortality. Through her vivid imagery and nuanced understanding of human experience, Laux captures the paradox of childhood: its capacity for both boundless play and deep, instinctive fear. In doing so, the poem becomes not just a narrative of a single train ride but a universal meditation on the human condition.

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