Drear, lonely men beside the ringing track! Slow-moving men, with crippled feet and back, One-armed, one-legged, battered many ways, Doomed to monotonous and tiresome days, -- The tinkle-tinkle of the falling bars, The waving flag, the swirl of thundering cars, Then tinkle-tinkle, teams and hurrying men, A moment's rest, and -- just the same again. Not from their grudging lips, reserved and grim, But from the stiffened form, the mangled limb, Through all the sombre, pitiable year The same unworded warning you may hear: "These cruel rails have made me what you see! Those coming wheels have crushed and crippled me!" The tinkle-tinkle -- "Look, and have a care!" The waving flag -- "Behold me, and beware!" O gloomy fate! -- and may it ne'er be mine, -- To be for all one's life a danger sign! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE SECRET by KATHERINE MANSFIELD A SUMMER'S GARDEN by ROBERT FROST INDEPENDENCE DAY, 1956, A FAIRY TALE by JAMES GALVIN CRITIC AND POET by EMMA LAZARUS THE RAINY SEASON by CLARENCE MAJOR A LITTLE GIRL'S PRAYER by KATHERINE MANSFIELD |