You'll forgive me a little John Milton. I hardly recall his verses, but while waiting for this train to pass, bits of the following poem also passed through my mind:
"Sweet the coming on
Of grateful evening mild; then silent night
With this her solemn bird and this fair moon,
And these the gems of heaven, her starry train."
I know, I know, Milton was using metaphor. But on this particular evening mild and silent night, it looked for all the world to me like a starry train...
24 comments:
Nice poem for a great shot Laurie...
This train moves so fast to it's destination while it seems the rest of the world stands still in the quiet of the evening....this is a starry train, for certain!
If you look at this with (whatever that word is you used a couple weeks ago meaning seeing the same thing as two different things), it looks like an extremely well-lit station with a white canopy. That's how I saw it at first. Look at the part of the train below the orange stripe as the platform.
I love your night shots and this one is wonderful — especially with the train speeding by!
Wow! You actually caught the streaks in the windows as the train sped by, while the signposts stood motionless as sentinels.
I love the blue glow of the signal lamp above the two stripes of red amid touches of white. This train can only be speeding through America!
One of your best.
After Uncle Wilbur, a war corespondent, returned from WW11 ( the one who invented carrot cake) he had a little alcohol problem and sort of disappeared. My great grandmother would sit on her porch late in the evening and when she heard the train whistle she'd sing "where-o-where is my sweet baby boy".
anyhow try this Halloween Madness link (really, it's not to be missed). Yes, I received permission, madness ensues over at pasadena adjacent (and elsewhere)
PA -
Was Uncle Wilber also a gardener? I think they wrote a song about him: The Days of Wine and Roses.
For some reason, I found this big South Pasadena house intriguing.
As Milton said, Shit, that's good.
Well my goodness, the comments are certainly interesting this morning! Love your capture of the train. How did you do that???? As always I enjoy your comments and the poem today is wonderful. Merci.
V
Ah yes, the South Pasadena Bullet.
I don't know how you pull these off Laurie. If I tried this it wouldn't even be recognizable as a train.
Fantastic "starry train"!
I just love this, all the purple and green. I know just where you're standing and it makes me feel like I'm standing there, too. A nice bit of poetry to go with it.
I love this shot, Laurie, and the star, which you find so readily, and the speeding train. Also your Milton quote. Your memory overwhelms me. And now if I may, a quote from Don McLean's song, "Vincent", as in Van Gogh and "Starry, Starry Night.":
" For they could not love you,
But still your love was true
And when no hope was left in sight
On a starry starry night,
You took your life, as lovers often do.
But I could have told you, Vincent,
This world was never meant for one
As beautiful as you."
If any one knows shit, horsehit, i.e., it's K.
In some evolutionary way this ties in with Uncle Milty.
A perferct combination of text and photo!!
I had to do a whole series of shots for a car hire place like this. Metaphors are there for our interpretation. That's my excuse anyway, but you can't deny the superb shot.
besides agreeing with everyone on the merits of the photograph & the text (do I sound like an art critic or what?), I just love the colors and how even the plastic posts looks so good - and the colors blending on the train...
The days of Wine and Roses? I don't think that fits.
It's just a chug, I think.
Hi folks,
THanks for all the kind words! And Madamoiselle Gramaphone, I love your links... :-)
PA, your family stories are right out of Tennessee Williams. I can just see your great grandmother on her porch.
Dixie (Mom!, thanks for the lyrics. That song always makes me cry!
But no time for tears now, it's very late and I must sleep. Thanks for the comments, everyone. See you tomorrow.
OH, and as to how I got the picture -- sheer luck, a long exposure and the use of my car window as a tripod!
Love your quote, whether it be metaphorical or not - it's so fitting. I just look at it and can hear that WHOOSH that only a fast moving train can make. I love the motion blur - one of my favorite forms of photography. With the flare from the lights - it's pretty much perfect in this girl-living-in-a-town-without-train's perspective. :~)
Well done, photo and poem!
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