"This is the night mail" - WH Auden

[TheMimifur]

And if Alex has his way, there'll be a big border passport situation.

[danielbarret1025]

Your vid is a favorite on Leste)Dili

[chuckwynn1026]

This video went viral on Kyiv

[BunkyOhare]

Superb, the original and ..best version...

[billgliss]

Fantastic !!! Pure magic!

[lcrip]

almost like 1930s industrial!

[marshcarol]

the poem is heard in the film's final sequence

[shaftsbury94]

wheres me fucking giro?

[scotsman125]

The is the Night Express crossing the Border, Bringing the passengers from Kings Cross to Edinburgh, Free for the rich, free for the poor, the shunting order at the family next door. The engine beats like a steady cilmb, the gradients make the cheese on time. Birds turn thier heads as she approaches, stare from the nimbys at his smoke out roaches.

Faster than Flying Scotsman, faster than Olton Hall, faster than Sir Liamel and faster than Rocket Replica. Beating a record like the Mallard!

[verethehandyman]

Brilliant ! A 63 year old railway enthusiast who has never lost his enthusiasm for this wonderful lively evocative poem Thank you !

[ILikeBeingMeXX]

in english we listened to this n all started rappin to it x

[theprophet20]

@ILikeBeingMeXX There is a brilliant new hip-hop version sampling this by Baron Samedi featuring Lixx. Google it and listen to it - I love it!

[juzbunny]

Well patter and rhythm are as much a part of rap as attitude and giant clocks. Just that you'd have to be at a point in society to get your stuff out there, It's amazing how much things haven't changed.

[gumbo2]

@MissAliiciaxXx3

I'm not sure how that makes it not rap.

[pachimienti]

So ahead of its time.. so cool to see the old photos of Scotland. love the rhythm scheme to emulate the climbing and then racing locomotive. brilliant. loved it.. pa

[revdrjim]

word

[NSLV527]

Fact: Rap was made by English white railroad documentary narrators over 70 years ago.

[JACKOTACO]

The first ever freestyle rap lol.

[theboybell]

Thanks for this! 12 Language really enjoyed it. Ben thought it was really really good at depicting the movement of a train

[egganboiled]

in the first verese i can aculay here the train think abut it

[psygrime]

PULL UP!!!

reload that first bar it was sick

RELOADdddddddddddd

[Applecri]

haha a RAP exactly! XD

[RiDiNGS0L0245]

We listend to this in primary school :D

[jenyalovely]

its sound scary

[RicardosRealm]

Magical creative genius.

I'd also argue that this movie proves WH Auden and Benjamin Britten invented rap!

[isabeltulloch]

This i sa great poem, it has a great reader too, i really love it...have never forgotten it ever...also, i like the beginning (the fast speaking tempo) and everything apart from the second paragraph...i love this

[moneygob]

Did this bloke do bagpuss?

[ianupton]

x factor:

superclubs. rooney. housemates with delusions.

escape to establish yet more self confusions.

removing lifes worth, here comes the conclusion

the life that you crave is just an illusion.

[ianupton]

This is the chav male crossing the Border, Bringing the giro cheque and the restraining order, Steals from the rich, steals from the poor, The shop at the corner, shags the girl next door. Pulling up roll up joint, a steady high: The police are against him, as hes done time. Past skunk-grass and moorland lager Shovelling white coke over his shoulder, Snorting noisily as he passes Silent miles of non grasses. Birds turn their heads as he approaches, Stare from nimbys at his smoked out roaches.

[milesofftarget]

@ianupton

If you wrote that, well done indeed ! Superb stuff, always truth in humour.

[globalcentralline]

@ianupton nutter!

[EnglishWulf]

@ianupton I love this poem and @ 1st nearly took offence. but got to admit your version is funny. Thumbs up : )

[paullubliner]

THIS is addictive.........

[Votapardo]

Sorry, forgot to add that the last line actually is "For who can BEAR TO feel himself forgotten?"

[Votapardo]

Impressive.

[choirboyfromhell1]

1:59 Track Pans. Still a marvelous favorite..

[jcjl963]

Is the narrator the narrator who narrates Trumpton?

[wentonmastermind]

Baron Verulam - spot on, your Grace!

[davidhaythornthwaite]

i have been trying tooo find thie rhyme for over 6 months, at last i have, i love it

[ducky72]

Fresh rhymes and killa flow, this is some great hip hop right here.

[ltpierce1]

wow awsome!!!

[BaronVerulam1618]

....This is the tube train waiting to go

stays totally still, a strike from Bob Crow

Commuters stranded from june until May

Whilst bob's on his arse earning £90K....

[choirboyfromhell1]

Yes, bang on....does a Circle Line train ever arrive in London?

[cvrmaniac]

BRILLIANT POEM!

[cpfunnycp]

i watched this at harris

[martinjp1958]

Everything about this is great.

[dogsbreath101]

Was the engine a 'Scot' ?

[jbbnbb]

Doesnt it make you feel you are on the train ? I can feel the cold night air and also the heat from the boiler.... and the bits of soot on the eyelids. Truly a great match of words and film which serves as a precious piece of social history !  Thanks,

[joc95]

add a beatbox from 00:01 to 1:00

[perfectimage100]

Mum has noted that the rhythmn matches the drumbeat made by the Master in Dr. Who

[Remnantique]

"Letters for the rich

Letters for the poor

The shop on the corner

The girl next door"

haaa legendary

[sexyprincessanna]

whatever anyone says Auden invented rapping - utter genius!!

makes me smile every time

and a fabulous piece of poetry:)

[danlefou]

The drummer is playing the four beats of coach wheels over rail joints, the strings are playing the 'Royal Scot' class loco's three-cylinder exhaust, and there's a guy rapping pentameters over it all.

And, guess what - it works, brilliantly! What a classic.

[montfortlamaury]

It is exciting ! I will learn it by heart .

[iluvwordsiluvwords]

Thank you; wonderful

[2329250]

no fucking banks to shut em down unlike today or the new labour tossers to sell em off to there rich mates all the best from yorkshire

[PeggyCream]

Brrap Gangstaarr Rap Mate (Y)

[thebrainsbehind]

Does anyone know the early film that used this poem? It was animated or used animation, with colour i think and I'm guessing was from the 50s.

I think it was only 4/5 minutes and may have been promotional, for the cinema (although did they advertise nationalised companies? - maybe to encourage letter writing).

Vague, sorry.

[budmanuk]

The film is simply called 'night mail' it's from 1936

[fourwayscottage]

AAAA.171049Z DEC 2008 Thank you for posting.......AR.

[steviered1]

that is brilliant

[jagdpanther1944]

whos says white men can't rap:)

[611unterscharfuhrer]

@jagdpanther1944 Very good

[jagdpanther1944]

@611unterscharfuhrer

danke! I love watching Wochenshau from 1940's

I love Jagdpanthers as you can see....and Tigers, and Mark 5 Panthers

How come Deutsche build the best kampfwagens???!!!

[freddy77777]

exquisite

[Jonny7railways]

As I had mentioned before, this is one heck of a video, W.H. Auden and music by Benjamin Britten what a pair, fantastic, thank you (the post was more appreciated in those days)

[Willis2992]

Thats cause the post was efficient in those days ;)

[stuartthegrant]

Nooooo. Stick to Magazines

[skyhawk1720]

shouldn't the line be "Stare from the bushes at her blank-faced coaches" ? blank faced because, unlike passenger coaches, mail coaches only had narrow slit windows near the roof. Still thanks for posting the whole poem. Apart from the evocation of steam trains verse four evoked a whole vanished industrial age.

[CRYSTEL00]

Doesn't it say "Stare from the bushes at her blank-faced coaches" I thought I heard it that way.

[ghughesarch]

"Birds turn their backs as she approaches, [and] stare from the bushes at her blank-faced coaches" - this is a Post Office sorting train with the windows blanked out.