To A Locomotive In Winter

THEE for my recitative!
   Thee in the driving storm, even as now--the snow--the winter-day
         declining;
   Thee in thy panoply, thy measured dual throbbing, and thy beat
         convulsive;
   Thy black cylindric body, golden brass, and silvery steel;
   Thy ponderous side-bars, parallel and connecting rods, gyrating,
         shuttling at thy sides;
   Thy metrical, now swelling pant and roar--now tapering in the
         distance;
   Thy great protruding head-light, fix'd in front;
   Thy long, pale, floating vapor-pennants, tinged with delicate purple;
   The dense and murky clouds out-belching from thy smoke-stack;
   Thy knitted frame--thy springs and valves--the tremulous twinkle of
         thy wheels;                                                  10
   Thy train of cars behind, obedient, merrily-following,
   Through gale or calm, now swift, now slack, yet steadily careering:
   Type of the modern! emblem of motion and power! pulse of the
         continent!
   For once, come serve the Muse, and merge in verse, even as here I see
         thee,
   With storm, and buffeting gusts of wind, and falling snow;
   By day, thy warning, ringing bell to sound its notes,
   By night, thy silent signal lamps to swing.

   Fierce-throated beauty!
   Roll through my chant, with all thy lawless music! thy swinging lamps
         at night;
   Thy piercing, madly-whistled laughter! thy echoes, rumbling like an
         earthquake, rousing all!                                     20
   Law of thyself complete, thine own track firmly holding;
   (No sweetness debonair of tearful harp or glib piano thine,)
   Thy trills of shrieks by rocks and hills return'd,
   Launch'd o'er the prairies wide--across the lakes,
   To the free skies, unpent, and glad, and strong.