The Outlawz Sunday Song and Rhyme challenge this time is From a railway carriage by Robert Louis Stevenson.
Faster than fairies, faster than witches,
Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches;
And charging along like troops in a battle,
All through the meadows the horses and cattle:
All of the sights of the hill and the plain
Fly as thick as driving rain;
And ever again, in the wink of an eye,
Painted stations whistle by.
Here is a child who clambers and scrambles,
All by himself and gathering brambles;
Here is a tramp who stands and gazes;
And there is the green for stringing the daisies!
Here is a cart run away in the road
Lumping along with man and load;
And here is a mill and there is a river:
Each a glimpse and gone for ever!
The poem is part of the Children’s garden of verses published in 1885. Robert was born in Scotland in 1850 and wrote many well know works; Treasure Island, Jeykll and Hyde, and Kidnapped among his most famous. He travelled widely although plagued by ill health. He died from a stroke aged 44 on the island of Samoa, where he had settled a few years before. In 2018, he was ranked just behind Charles Dickens as the 26th-most-translated author in the world. It is amazing how much he achieved whilst struggling with ill health. His work is well known all over the world.
I struggled with this one as I haven’t been able to think straight and was slow to get it done, but got there in the end. Having read about Robert Louis Stevenson and his achievements, it makes me feel quite pathetic!
I like the way the poem is written it gives the rhythm of a train as you read it and a feeling of speed and scenery passing by. I was surprised to read that trains could travel as fast as 75mph in the 1880’s.
For the card I used a Cricut image of fields and a river drawn on my Cricut Joy. The windmill is die cut with Tattered Lace Decorative Windmill Die, the swirly background is from a design pad produced for The Works, called Fresh Feelings. The inspiration is the words “And here is a mill and there is a river.”