Travel
The railroad track is miles away,And the day is loud with voices speaking,Yet there isn’t a train goes by all dayBut I hear its whistle shrieking.
All night there isn’t a train goes by,Though the night is still for sleep and dreaming,But I see its cinders red on the sky,And hear its engine steaming.
My heart is warm with the friends I make,And better friends I’ll not be knowing,Yet there isn’t a train I wouldn’t take,No matter where it’s going.
About this text
Travel is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #59167; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edna St. Vincent Millay, Travel, in Poems (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59167, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/millay-poems/travel.html, id L24369.
Form and metre
Travel is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABAB awayA · speakingB · dayA · shriekingB
- 2 ABAB byA · dreamingB · skyA · steamingB
- 3 ABAB makeA · knowingB · takeA · goingB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The railroad track is miles away, | 8 | ·/····˘/ |
| And the day is loud with voices speaking, | 10 | ······/˘/˘ |
| Yet there isn’t a train goes by all day | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| But I hear its whistle shrieking. | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| All night there isn’t a train goes by, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Though the night is still for sleep and dreaming, | 10 | ········/˘ |
| But I see its cinders red on the sky, | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| And hear its engine steaming. | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| My heart is warm with the friends I make, | 9 | ········· |
| And better friends I’ll not be knowing, | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| Yet there isn’t a train I wouldn’t take, | 10 | ··˘˘···/˘· |
| No matter where it’s going. | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.