Page:Poems of Nature and Life.djvu/331

 THE RAILROAD TRAIN 32 1

Each by a self-created gale

Drive swiftly on to reach the tide, Freighted with many a stately tree, And from a grassy to a watery sea Bearing, as by free will, the works of industry, —

And to those hills swift bringing back

The wealth from every clime that flows. Each beacon light from mast of black Now through a dusty tempest glows ; And now 'mongst billowy rocks thy sails expand. And now thy bright keels spurn the desert strand. To plough through flinty spray o'er bays of glittering sand.

��THE RAILROAD TRAIN.

SECOND TREATMENT.

What fiery steed comes clattering past. With reeking breath and streaming mane ?

His snort is like the wintry blast, His flight outstrips the hurricane.

Breathless he pants, yet seems to sail, With force so smooth he cuts the wind.

There, like a dragon's, glides the tail,

Outstretched in ponderous length behind.

And now the huge beast checks his speed. And stops to drink at yonder trough,

And on his meal of logs to feed ;

And now once more, with husky cough,

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