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Night Mail. This is the night mail crossing the Border, Bringing the cheque and the postal order, Letters for the rich, letters for the poor, The shop at the corner, the girl next door. Pulling up Beattock, a steady climb: The gradient's against her, but she's on time. Past cotton-grass and moorland boulder.
- Summary
- Structure
- Poetic Techniques
- Detailed Analysis
‘Night Mail’ by W.H. Audenpresents the significance of a night postal train carrying mail through the Scottish countryside. The poem conforms to a consistent rhyme schemeand metrical pattern that follows the path of a train. It carries letters from every part of the world on every topic up a hill and through the grasses. The smoke flies over the tr...
‘Night Mail’ by W.H. Auden is a twelve-stanza poem that is divided into stanzas of varying lengths. The first eight stanzas are couplets, meaning that they contain two lines and rhyme perfectly. Stanzanine has eight lines, stanza ten: nineteen, stanza eleven: three, and stanza twelve has seven lines. When one considers the background of this poem a...
Auden makes use of several poetic techniques in ‘Night Mail’. These include but are not limited to anaphora, enjambment, simile, personification, alliteration, and sibilance. The first, anaphora, is the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of multiple lines, usually in succession. This technique is often used to create emphasis. A list o...
Stanzas One, Two, and Three
In the first couplet of ‘Night Mail,’ the speakerbegins by describing the initial progress of the night mail train “crossing the Border” into Scotland. It is heading “up Beattock” at a steady climb. The train is making good progress, doing what it does best. Onboard, there are “cheque[s] and the postal order[s]” as well as more personal items. These include “Letters for the rich, letters for the poor.” This line is only the first example of the repetition that Auden makes use of in ‘Night Mai...
Stanzas Five and Six
A reader should also immediately notice how Auden uses personification to make the train seem more human and its efforts more relatable. The “gradient” is “against her” but she makes it up the hill. She remains on time as she travels through the different landscapes of the area. Another great example of personification comes in the second line of the fourth stanza. Here, the poet describes the train as “Shovelling white steam over her shoulder”. This is, of course, a depiction of the smoke th...
Stanzas Six, Seven, and Eight
The next three stanzas are also couplets, following the same pattern as the five that came before them. The train has such a presence as it passes the birds still turn their heads to look at “her”. She pulls behind her “blank-faced coaches”. Each part of the locomotive is important and therefore it is all personified to an extent. These stanzas take the reader through the landscape and speak briefly on different elements of it. The poet mentions the “farm[s]” where people are sleeping and the...
- Female
- October 9, 1995
- Poetry Analyst And Editor
Mar 9, 2024 · The poem begins with an introduction to the night mail train, indicating its journey crossing the border, presumably between England and Scotland. Bringing the cheque and the postal order,
Analysis. The charming poem “Night Mail” was written in 1936 to accompany the documentary film of the same year and the same title. The film concerned a London, Midland, and Scottish Railway (LMS) mail train traveling from London to Scotland. It was produced by GPO Film Unit, directed by Harry Watt and Basil Wright, and narrated by John ...
WH Auden. This is the night mail crossing the Border, Bringing the cheque and the postal order, Letters for the rich, letters for the poor, The shop at the corner, the girl next door. Pulling up Beattock, a steady climb: The gradient's against her, but she's on time. Past cotton-grass and moorland boulder. Shovelling white steam over her shoulder,
Here is the analysis of some of the poetic devices used in this poem. Couplet: There are two constructive lines of verse in a couplet, usually in the same meter and joined by rhyme. The opening of the poem follows eight couplets. End Rhyme: End rhyme is used to make the stanza melodious. W.
Apr 2, 2024 · Introduction to The Night Mail. The Night Mail is a poem by Wystan Hugh Auden. The Night Mail carries the much awaited mail at night from London to Glasgow. The poet has personified the Night Mail, giving it human attributes as it travels all night through different terrains. The train brings letters, cheques and postal orders for all sections ...
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