Stephen Spender
About the author:
Stephen Spender (28 February 1909 – 16 July 1995) was a renowned English poet, novelist, and essayist whose words captivated readers across generations. The poet's sensitivity to the human toll of modernity is evident in his poignant verses. Because of his extensive exploration of technology in his writing, Spender earned the distinction of being one of the 'Pylon Poets' (a poet who writes about the technological development) alongside other writers from the 1930s. The poem, "The Express" was initially published in Spender's poetry collection titled "The Still Centre" published in 1939.
'The Express' explores the uncanny presence of the train, which becomes the primary subject of the poem, distorting the familiar environment and highlighting the poet's fascination with modernity.
The Express
---- Stephen Spender
After the first powerful plain manifesto
The black statement of pistons, without more fuss
But gliding like a queen, she leaves the station.
Without bowing and with restrained unconcern
She passes the houses which humbly crowd outside,
The gasworks and at last the heavy page
Of death, printed by gravestones in the cemetery.
Beyond the town there lies the open country
Where, gathering speed, she acquires mystery,
The luminous self-possession of ships on ocean.
It is now she begins to sing—at first quite low
Then loud, and at last with a jazzy madness—
The song of her whistle screaming at curves,
Of deafening tunnels, brakes, innumerable bolts.
And always light, aerial, underneath
Goes the elate metre of her wheels.
Steaming through metal landscape on her lines
She plunges new eras of wild happiness
Where speed throws up strange shapes, broad curves
And parallels clean like the steel of guns.
At last, further than Edinburgh or Rome,
Beyond the crest of the world, she reaches night
Where only a low streamline brightness
Of phosphorus on the tossing hills is white.
Ah, like a comet through flame, she moves entranced
Wrapt in her music no bird song, no, nor bough
Breaking with honey buds, shall ever equal.
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Figures of Speech (भाषा के अलंकार) |
Lines from “The Express” |
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Simile (उपमा): A simile compares two unlike things using "like" or "as". Example: (उपमा दो विपरीत चीजों के बीच तुलना है जिसमें "जैसा"/” तरह” शब्दों का उपयोग किया जाता है।) Example: 1. Laxman walks like a lion. 2. Tom eats like a pig. Here: Laxman (Human) Lion (Animal) |
1. “But gliding like a queen, she leaves the station…”
2. “And parallels clean like the steel of guns…”
3. “Ah, like a comet through flame, she moves entranced…”
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Metaphor (रूपक): Metaphor is the art of comparing two totally different things without using "like" or "as". (रूपक दो भिन्न चीज़ों के बीच संबंध स्थापित करते हैं। “जैसा"/” तरह” शब्दों का उपयोग किए बिना।) Example: 1. Laxman is a lion. 2. Tom is a pig. |
1. “Steaming through metal landscape on her lines” Here, landscape= railway tracks
2. “she begins to sing—at first quite low…” Here, to sing= whistle |
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Personification ( मनुष्यगुणारोप): Personification is a literary device that humanizes inanimate objects for imagery. Example: 1. The sky is crying. 2. The moon looked down to me. |
1. “She passes the houses….”
2. “She moves….”
Here, she= The Train |
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Hyperbole (अत्युक्ति): Example: 1. I'm so hungry, I could eat a horse. 2. Raja can sleep forever. |
1. “Beyond the crest of the world…” |
Multiple
Choice Questions:
1. Who is the author of the poem "The
Express"? [ B.A/B.Sc. 2024]
A) Rabindra Nath Tagore
B) Robert Frost
C) Stephen Spender
D) William Wordsworth
Answer: C) Stephen Spender
2. What is the primary theme
of the poem "The Express"?
A) Love
B) Nature
C) Industrialization
D) Loneliness
Answer: C) Industrialization
3. In the poem, what does the express train symbolize?
A) Speed and progress
B) Pollution
C) Solitude
D) Nature's beauty
Answer: A) Speed and progress
4. Which city is mentioned in "The Express"?
A) New Delhi
B) London
C) Edinburgh
D) Manchester
Answer: C) Edinburgh
5. Which capital city is mentioned in "The Express"?
A) New Delhi
B) London
C)Manchester
D) Rome
Answer: D) Rome
6. What is the heavy page of death?
A) Gasworks
B) Back of the Church
C) Cremation Ground
D) Cemetery
Answer: D) Cemetery
7. Where does the train gain speed?
A) the cemetery
B) the open countryside
C) the gas work
D) phosphorous hills
Answer: B) the open countryside
8.Who humbly crowded on both sides of the rail?
A) Heavy page
B) Rome
C) Houses
D) People
Answer: C) Houses
9. Where does the song of her whistle scream?
A) At curves
B) At the station
C) At the junction
D) None of the these
Answer: A) At curves
9. How do the houses appear when the train passes through them?
A) Humble
B) Indifferent
C) Sleeping
D) Proud
Answer: A) Humble
10. Identify the figure of speech: “At last, further than Edinburgh or Rome,
Beyond the crest of the world, she reaches night"
A) Alliteration
B) Hyperbole
C) Symbol
D) Oxymoron
Answer: B) Hyperbole
11. “She passes the houses which humbly crowd outside,” here “humbly crowed” is
A) Simile
B) Metaphor
C) Hyperbole
D) Personification
Answer: D) Personification
12. “Beyond the crest of the world, she reaches night,” Who is she here?
A) Mother
B)Sister
C) The woman
D) The Train
Answer: D)The Train
13. In the poem, the train's glide is compared to
A) walk of a queen
B) movement of ship
C) movement of a plane
D) movement of a bus
Answer: A) walk of a queen
14. How does the train look like when she gains speed?
A) a comet
B) a ship on the ocean
C) a glider
D) a motorboat
Answer: B) a ship on the ocean
15. "After the first powerful plain manifesto" here "plain manifesto" is an example of--
A). Simile
B) Metaphor
C) hyperbole
D) Personification
Answer: B) Metaphor
16. What does the poet mean by "Plain Manifesto"?
A) Sound of the Gun
B) Sound of pistons of the train
C) Sound of steam from the train
D) Sound of the whistle
Answer: D) Sound of the whistle
17. What does Manifesto mean?
A) Public order
B) Private order
C) Public declaration
D) Private declaration
Answer: C) Public declaration
18. Where does the train arrive at night?
A) a city on the sea shore
B) a very high place on the mountains.
C) Edinburgh
D) Beyond the crest of the world
Answer: D) Beyond the crest of the world
19. In the poem, "The Express" who is "wrapt in her music"?
A) Bird
B) The Village
C) The House
D) The Train
Answer: D) The Train
20. The poem "The Express" draws a comparison between the train and...
A) Man
B) Woman
C) Child
D) None of these
Answer: B) Woman
21. The Express was published in________.
A) 1936
B)1939
C) 1947
D) 1920
Answer: B)1939
22. What is the primary setting of "The Express"? [B.A. 2024]
A) The Train Station
B) A Bus Terminal
C) A Subway platform
D) A Bus city street
Answer: A) The Train Station
23. "The Express" is a..... [B.A. 2024]
A) Prose
B) Fiction
C) Ode
D) Poem
Answer: D) Poem
24. In "The Express" what is the speaker waiting for? [B.A. 2024]
A) A Train
B) A Friend
C) A Taxi
D) A Bus
Answer: A) A Train
25. Which word best describes the mood of the poem? [2024]
A) Energetic
B) Gloomy
C) Joyful
D) Peaceful
Answer: C) Joyful
26. The figure of speech used in the poem "The Express" in the line "But gliding like a queen" is
A) Simile [B.A. 2024]
B) Metaphor
C) Alliteration
D) Hyperbole
27. The song of the Express has been compared to [B.A. 2024]
A) Song of a bird
B) Jazzy madness
C) Orchestra
D) Violin
28. How is the train described as it leaves the station? [B.A. 2024]
A) Gliding like a queen
B) Bowing with reverence
C) Making a fuss
D) Slowing down
29. What is the color of the train mention in poem? [B.A. 2024]
A) Black
B) White
C) Blue
D) Red
30. What does the train pass by outside the houses? [B.A. 2024]
A) Gravestones
B) Gas works
C) Cemeteries
D) Rivers
31. What is described as the colour of phosphorus on the tossing hills? [B.A./B.Sc. 2024]
A) Black
B) White
C) Blue
D) Red
32. How for does the train reach in its journey? [B.A. 2024]
A) Edinburg or Rome
B) The crest of the world
C) Tossing hills
D) Night time
33. How does the train acquire as it enters the open country? [B.A. 2024]
A) Mystery
B) Darkness
C) Silence
D) Clarity
34. Where does the train gather speed?
A) in the town
B) in the cemetery
C) in the open country
D ) none of these
35. What does the train plunge into? [B.A. 2024]
A) Darkness
B) Madness
C) (Wild) happiness
D) Silence
36. How does the train's whistle sound? [B.A. 2024]
A) Low and Soft
B) Loud and Jazzy
C) Deafening and Sharp
D) Muted and Distant
37. When was Stephen Spender born? [B.A. 2024]
A) 1909
B) 1920
C) 1940
D) 1960
38. "The Express" is a symbol of [B.A. 2024]
A) modernity
B) change
C) advancement of technology
D) all of these
 by Stephen Spender (Third Year)){kind=link}
1 Comments
Thank you
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