Travel

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1921

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Mimetic: Meter, Structure, and Rhyme

The use of iambic (unstressed/stressed syllable repetition) and trochee (stressed/unstressed syllable repetition) throughout the poem reinforces an ordered, chugging rhythm when read out loud. Mentioned earlier in this guide, the long vowel sounds of -i and -e create a sad tone against the sounds of people and the train.

Millay adds to this by incorporating the -b rhyme throughout the poem. It repeats in all three stanzas. The result is that the end-rhyme and meter give the poem a near-symmetrical sound that is just slightly off balance. Perhaps this also emits a visual of the speaker, who reaches the train and always falls short.

The line length and syllabic structure of “Travel” also make the experience short and perpetually in motion while simultaneously stuck on a groove. The varied line lengths also create subtle pushes and pulls. Each line ranges from seven to 10 syllables. In the first two stanzas, the second line is the longest. Millay utilizes this longest line to focus on the outside world: where people speak and dream. These lines are followed by conjunctions that limit opportunity: “but” and “yet” (Lines 3, 4, 7, 11) further highlighting the speaker’s inability to move.

Personification

People are mentioned in the poem, but they ironically don’t have the presence, or even omnipresence, that the train has in the speaker’s life. They are either talking or dreaming, but they don’t interact and connect with the speaker’s desire the way the train does. The train is in waking and dreaming moments for the speaker, whereas the people can only be heard in the day. The train exercises human-like communication qualities such as “shrieking” (Line 4). It also exhibits color and visibility (in contrast to the speaker, friends, or place, which exist in a void). Its presence reaches everywhere, no matter the distance. The speaker can hear it in the distance and see it on the horizon.

Metaphor

The train represents travel, escape, opportunity, and experience. This urge coincides with the desire to explore in the early-20th century, whether by trains or by car. As place is relatively undefined in the poem, trains connect from state-to-state, and may have been more affordable and accessible than cars at that point in the century. As it relates to the speaker, it speaks of opportunity (or the lack thereof). There is never an opportunity for the speaker to depart. If the speaker is, in fact, a woman, the train as metaphor is remarking on the lack of opportunities women had to break from a role in community and be nomadic like their male counterparts.