The Trains

By James Cox, Student

Codes and Conventions

An essay hosted at LiteratureClassics.com

""Thge trains"" is a poem by Judith Wright, written in World WQar II. It is a particularly descriptive poemn that uses many codes and conventions of the genre.

One of the conventions of poetry like this is the use of lots of similies and metaphors. For example, old men's sleep is ""shattered like glass,"" the whistle of the train is a ""wild summoning cry."" The train iteslef ids a ""tiger."" These devicews are iused to show us that war is dab. EVen the train, as a simply transport, is a tiger, ruining old folk's sleep. The train in the poetry is carrying arms: a large symbol of war. So war, through the use of the train, is with them ""past and future, troubling the children's sleep, laying a reeking trail across our dream[s]..."" When the whistle of the train pierces their hearts they recall the panic of war, the ""old panic riot,"" and war through the ages: ""blood's red thread still binds us fast in history.""

Thge peom uses many different codes, some of which will soon be out of date: already they are old-fashioned. For example, the trains pass... with sa sound like thunder."" If you had never hgeard a steam engine before then the phrase may have no meaning. In a few generation, that code will no longer appl.y The ""wild summoning cry, their animal cry"" of a steam engine whistle is another code that will vanish. Today, it is the electric powered bass hotrn, and the whine of the alternator, not the high pitched 'animal' shriek and the rush of the cylinders of the golden days of steam. One code which will never vanish, howver, is that of ""blodd's red thread... in history."" That code will probaly signal war forever.

%The Rhyme scheme used in ""The Trains"" is very interesting, if one is even used at all! In the first two stanzas, the first and fourth lines rhyme. In thre third and last Stanza, the first and third lines rhy,me. It is hard to tell if a rhyme scheem was used deliberately, or if the words that fit just happen to rhyme. If not, the use of the irregular flow of words brings the poem anagolous to that of thought: which fits in with the idea of a poet's musings.

Another convention of the genre thgat is used in theis poem is onamatopoeia. This occurs in war poetry to a large extent due to the many loud noises associated with war like explosives, guns, motors, planes, etc. Two examples of Onomatopoeia are th treian's sound: ""like thuinder"" anbd the train's whistle: ""wild [and] summoning."" The poem departs from the genre a bit here: they are not exactly onomatopeia, they are mnore like 'methphor/similie sounds.' It is notreally spelling the sounds, but describing them. This creates the interesting effect of comparison.

In conclusion, through the use of codes anbd conventions, you can look deeper into the poem and get an idea of the context. The poet works forward from their life, and writres a poem, and if we work backwards from the poem we can see some of thew world of the poet.