On Mon, 27 Mar 2006 21:36:17 +0200, you wrote:
>A French correspondant wishes to know if indeed Kipling wrote the following :
>
> : "Poetry did bring with itself the nine fifteen train." that was quoted in translation as : "La poésie a amené avec elle le train de neuf heures quinze." by the French literary critic Assouline in the Nouvel Express recently.
>
>To me it does not sound like Kipling. Does anyone know better ?
It's Kipling, all right, from "The King", an 1894 poem about the human tendency to
look back to "the good old days." The relevant stanza is:
"'Romance!' the season-tickets mourn,
"*He* never ran to catch His train,
But passed with coach and guard and horn,
And left the local--late again!
Confound Romance!"-- And, all unseen,
Romance brought up the nine-fifteen."
--
Meredith Dixon
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