Give a critical analysis of the poem "The Express" by Stephen Spender.

"The Express" by Stephen Spender is a semi-meter free
verse poem of 27 lines with a presence of iambs in lines that can be scanned according
to pentameter. Examples of places where the traces of iambic pentameter appears
are:

She pass'
-es the hous' -es which humb' -ly crowd outside',     5
Where speed' throws
up' strange shapes' , broad curves'     
9

Free verse is written
according to the theory that metrical considerations of rhythm and patterns of
repetition (feet) hinder expressions of thought more often than they enhance such
expression. Poets writing free verse consider metrical elements to be another poetic
devise available for use to meet desired ends. Spender uses shades of meter to draw
attention sections of his poem, for instance after "she" bolws "her whistle screaming at
the curves" and continues to gain momentum and
speed.

Similarly, there is no rhyme scheme, yet Spender
does include two instances of rhyme. The first is in lines
7-9:

Of
death, printed by gravestones in the cemetery.
Beyond the town, there lies the
open country 
Where, gathering speed, she acquires
mystery,

End rhymes join the
lines with "cemetery," "country," and "mystery." Bear in mind "cemetery" carries a
British pronunciation rhyming it with "country" and "mystery." The second
is,

Beyond the
crest of the world, she reaches night
Where only a low streamline
brightness
Of phosphorus on the tossing hills is
light.

where "night" and
"light" alternate with "brightness." Spender points to the vitality of the express
locomotive by juxtaposing the "mystery" of its "gathering speed" in the "open country"
with the still death of the "cemetery." Then he dramatizes the distance the express
travels by defining the brightness of the light at the far reaches of the world by the
word "night": brightness so far removed that it's part of
night.

The underlying metaphor personifies the express
locomotive and compares "her" to a queen: "But gliding like a queen', she leaves the
station." The theme is the might and prowess of the locomotive express train ("The black
statement of pistons"). The theme is illustrated in the closing lines, 25, 26 and
27:

Ah, like
a comet through flame, she moves entranced, 
Wrapt in her music no bird song,
no, nor bough
Breaking with honey buds, shall ever
equal.

Some poetic devices
Spender uses are personification, as stated, which is carried throughout the poem
through the repetition of "she" and "her." Spender employs metaphor, for example, the
comparison of the "landscape" to the railway tracks, or lines: "Streaming through metal
landscapes on her lines, ...." Spender also uses a metaphor to compare the express's
whistle to a song "she begins to sing":

readability="7">

It is now she begins to sing --- at first quite
low
Then loud, and at last with a jazzy madness ---
The song of her
whistle screaming at
curves

Spender employs two
similes. The first compares the parallel train ties to bullet trajectories: "And
parallels clean like trajectories from guns." The second compares the express to a
comet: "Ah, like a comet through flame, she moves entranced,
...."