Now range up the carriages, feed up the fires! <br />To the rail, to the rail, now the pent up desires <br />Of the pale toiling million find gracious reply. <br />On the pinions of steam they shall fly, they shall fly, <br />The beauties of nature and art to explore, <br />To ramble the woodlands and roam by the shore. <br />The city spark here with his smart smirking lass, <br />All peg-topp'd and crinolined, squat on the grass: <br />While with quips and with cranks, and soft-wreathed smiles, <br />Each nymph with her swain the dull Sabbath beguiles. <br />Here mater and pater familias will come <br />With their rollicking brood from their close city home. <br />How they scramble and scream, how they scamper and run, <br />While pa and mamma are enjoying the fun! <br />And the urchins bawl out, 'Oh how funny and jolly, <br />Dear ma, it is thus to keep Sabbath-day holy!' <br />Now for pipe and cigar, and the snug pocket flask, <br />What's the rail on a Sunday without them, we ask? <br />What the sweet-scented heather and rich clover blooms <br />To the breath of the weed as it smoulders and fumes? <br />So in courting and sporting, in drinking and smoking, <br />Walking and talking, in laughter and joking, <br />They while the dull hours of the Sabbath away. <br />What a Sabbath it is! Who is lord of the day? <br />Son of man, Son of God, in the sacred record, <br />'Tis written that thou art of Sabbath the Lord; <br />But impious man hath reversed the decree, <br />And declares himself lord of the Sabbath to be. <br /> <br /> <br />In a world without souls it might not be amiss <br />The Sabbath to spend in such fashion as this; <br />But men having souls, if aware of the fact, <br />Should remember the Sabbath to keep it intact. <br />For souls are immortal, and bodies are clay, <br />And life but a vapour that fleeteth away; <br />To the soul and to God in His worship be given, <br />Oh, is it too much?-'tis but one day in seven.<br /><br />Janet Hamilton<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-sunday-rail-i/
