Last British Night Mail Train

Thanks for posting this, Walter. Bits of that poem have stayed in my mind for over 30 years, ever since I saw the 1936 documentary film, Night Mail, for which the poem was writen. There's some interesting background information about how the poem came to be used in the film at:

http://www.britmovie.co.uk/genres/documentary/filmography/003.html

Thanks for the link, Bree!

"Auden lived in Germany, where he witnessed the rise of nazism, and during the Spanish Civil War he served as an ambulance driver. In 1936 he married Erika Mann, daughter of Thomas Mann, to provide her with a British passport and enable her to leave Germany."
Biography Wystan Hugh Auden

Hey that's interesting.

I saw one of these trains only once, I think, in Preston station.
The doors were open, and the men inside were busily sorting letters.

I knew of the poem "The Night Mail" before I knew that they did the actual sorting on the move.

Thanks Walter, very poetic.

Here's one for you:

Ein Fichtenbaum stehet einsam
Im Norden auf kahler Hoeh'.
Ihn schlaefert; mit weisser Decke
Umhuellen ihn Eis und Schnee

Er traeumt von einer Palme
Die, fern im Morgenland
Einsam und schweigend trauert
Auf brennender Felsenwand.

Well, I ride on a mailtrain, baby,
Can't buy a thrill.
Well, I've been up all night, baby,
Leanin' on the window sill.
Well, if I die
On top of the hill
And if I don't make it,
You know my baby will.

Don't the moon look good, mama,
Shinin' through the trees?
Don't the brakeman look good, mama,
Flagging down the "Double E"?
Don't the sun look good
Goin' down over the sea?
Don't my gal look fine
When she's comin' after me?

Now the wintertime is coming,
The windows are filled with frost.
I went to tell everybody,
But I could not get across.
Well, I wanna be your lover, baby,
I don't wanna be your boss.
Don't say I never warned you
When your train gets lost.
bob dylan

Thanks, McTag!

(I bet, you quoted that by heart :wink: )

Quoted? I made it up myself!

Actually you're right: I half-remembered it, but had to look it up to check. I learned it a few years ago, and I should have remembered it, really.

But it was nothing to do with trains. What's that one, a song, about "Die kleine Schaffnerin"?

1. Einsteigen bitte, einsteigen bitte,
Ruft sie jedem laut ins Ohr.
Bleiben sie bitte
Nicht in der Mitte,
Gehen sie endlich doch vor.
2. Austeigen bitte, aussteigen bitte
Wir sind bei der Endstation,
Doch ich bleib sitze,
Und nimm die dritte
Fahrkarte mir heute schon.

Chorus:
Liebe kleine Schaffnerin
Kling kling kling!
Sag' wo fährt dein Wagen hin?
Klin kling kling!
Liebe kleine Schaffnerin
Gern bleib' ich im Wagen drin,
|: Und ich küsse dann sehr galant
Deine kleine entzückende, kleine berückende,
Fahrkartenzwickende Hand.


That should be the song about the "kleine Schaffberin".

Yes that's the one: I forget the tune, aber macht nichts.

Sorry if I've lowered the tone of a very interesting thread. I have not seen anything in our newspapers about the demise of the mobile mail-sorting trains.
Have you read how they spent millions to change the name of the Post Office to "Insignia", and that was a commercial disaster so they changed it back to "Royal Mail" or something. I can't even remember.
The pillar boxes are still red, anyway.

Auden collaborated with Christopher Isherwood: I've got two of Isherwood's books written about life in Berlin in the 1930s. Classics in their way, of a byegone age.

Thanks for the thread.

McT

The Mail "Train" is not dead yet
There is now a poem more relevant than Auden's:

JUNK MAIL TRAIN

This is the Junk Mail crossing the border
Delivered by truck now, that's the order
None of it wanted, all of it waste
All of it tinged with commercial distaste
Delivering catalogues all unsolicited
Names on the mailing list slyly elicited
'Yearly subscription' that's the refrain
'Take out a loan or a time-share in Spain'
Unwanted brochures shrouded in plastic
Thousands of leaflets bound by elastic
All come unbidden, a waste of a trip
Bound for the landfill, bound for the tip
All come by lorries pounding the highways
Blocking the ring road and clogging the by-ways
No more will the Night Mail arrive at the station
De-railed by the forces of privatisation
'Victorian problem - Victorian answer'
That is an insult to the service they ran, sir
Imagine old Isambard taking this tack
'Sorry we're late sir, leaves on the track'!
Now, gone is the romance
Gone is the snobbery
The twenty-first century's Greatest Train Robbery
So while we're asleep the postman is driving
And the profits of shareholders quietly thriving
To bring us material for which none of us asked
To redress the balance is how we are tasked
Here comes the postman rounding the block
Here comes the postman, here comes his knock
With quickening heart I leap from my bunk
'Anything interesting, dear?'
'Nothing, just junk!'

Thanks, Clive, for sharing the poem, and wellcome to A2K!

Hey Clive, Fiona wants to know, who wrote the poem? Very good.

What a brill first post. Thank you.

Junk Mail poem
Thank you Walter and McTag!

Unfortunately, I do not know the author. About 4 days ago, it was read out on Radio 2 in the UK (Wogan)...I was so impressed by it that I emailed them to find out more about it. The producer emailed me back with the poem but no other information, I'm afraid!

I must say that it's been years since I have heard anything as evocative in modern poetry and I'm glad you liked it!

::::groan::::

That takes me back....the whole matinee audience watching this in rapt silence, before going completey bonkers over the latest CFF offering, then the main feature (usually from Hollywood)

Laptop - working out what was left of his one bob pocket money