Night Mail

Every now and then (2005 and 2007 I blog about W. H. Auden.

Today I came across "Night Mail", a 1936 documentary film about a London, Midland and Scottish Railway mail train from London to Scotland. For this film W.H. Auden wrote a poem, Benjamin Britten made the music.

There's a Nightmail Video on Youtube that is worth watching and listening as the poem's rhythm imitates that of the train wheels and starts picking up and gaining speed.

The opening starts like this:

This is the Night Mail crossing the border,
Bringing the cheque and the postal order,
Letters for the rich, letters for the poor,
The shop at the corner and the girl next door....

The poem's full text is here.