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.
Is this poem familiar to you? It’s part of the movie Night Mail, a 1936 documentary film about a LMS (London, Midland and Scottish) Railway mail train.
We’ve talked about the Railway Post Offices before, but on this documentary, you can actually see them in action:Isn’t it fascinating? The on-board mail sorting, the clip mechanism to snatch the mail bags, the control room… oh! and the British countryside of the 30s!
The poem, which is recited at the end of the documentary is by W. H. Auden. Wikipedia provides some insight about it:As recited in the film, the poem’s rhythm imitates the train’s wheels as they clatter over track sections, beginning slowly but picking up speed so that by the time the penultimate verse the narrator is at a breathless pace. As the train slows toward its destination the final verse is more sedate.
I hope you enjoyed that glimpse of life on a Railway train!
As for the results of last week’s giveaway, the eight lucky winners are: ladybug513, anitag71, kirimon, lovpinka, leoloco, journeyy, gwyllion and lars. Congratulations!
25 comments so far
This is wonderful! Thank you for this lovely informative article - it's a pleasure to read the blog
And congratulations for the winners! The contests and give-aways are such a nice thing from Postcrossing.com !
Congratulations to all the winners! :D
What a cool film!! :D Thanks for sharing this!!!!
My congratulations to winners! Especially I'm glad for Susan (ladybug513)!
Allways something new around postcrossing! cool! And congrats to the lucky 5!!!
Yay! Thank you so much!
What a cool film! I am sharing this on my page. Congratulations to all winners.
What a gem of an old film! The romantic image of the MAIL and the TRAIN in bygone days. Some of the duties would not be considered unsafe, and disallowed by safety regulations. The poem at the end was well spoken!
Oh, my gosh! I won! Thank you so very much!
And what a wonderful old film. A look into a bygone era. Thank you for sharing.
thanks a lot, what a marvellous fascinating old movie! Mail and trains, what a wonderful combination....
how does one enter a give away?
Congratulation for the winners.:)
Wat a nice documentary!
http://wacht-niet-op-gisteren.blogspot.com/
I won??? Wow, it's such a big surprise! Thank you very much!!! :D
I heard the movie first time!
I am looking forward to it,but i can not open it withoue reason.
Thanks for the shares from all above!
I received the postcards I won today, thank you so much! I can't believe I actually won :). And thank you for sharing the documentary, it's really interesting.
I was really surprised when today a letter reached me from Paulo with 17 beautiful postcards. Thank you very much!! :)
Yay! I received the postcards today also! It was a great surprise! :) Thanks!
i won too... surprise me ^..^ waiting the rewards come to my home~
Thank you, Paulo - the postcards arrived today and what wonderful photography! I'm so happy I won this giveaway!
I received the postcards today - on Christmas Day! It's a lovely Christmas present. Thank you very much, Paulo.
I want a pc in 2012~happy hour!
Hi, I have recived my postcards. They are too lovely to send :) Thanks so much for the opportunity :)
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