The Ballad of a Motor 'Bus by Sheila Kaye-Smith
A speaker rides a London motor-'bus at evening, tracing its route from Ludgate Circus, where fleets of 'buses gather beneath the bridge pointing toward the Strand, ready to scatter toward every quarter of the city — east and west, north and south, to the Elephant and Castle, Gospel Oak, Parson's Green, Chelsea, Putney, Barnes, and Sheen. The poem surveys the other 'buses' routes: some cross the river to watch steamers crawl toward the Pool or London Wall, rumbling past dingy houses; some plunge north to Kensal Rise and Hampstead's smokeless skies; others run east to Hackney and the long Commercial Road, past commerce and poverty. The speaker's own 'bus goes westward, leaving Charing Cross, bounding up Piccadilly through dusty wind as the first lamps light and, across St James's Park, the early lights of Westminster splash on the darkening sky. Dusk falls gently while London's glare climbs to color the sad skies, and the speaker hums onward through mingled dusk and dazzle, wind bringing the evening's first dampness. It is a summer evening, with early stars appearing above the smoke and the western afterglow dying out; the wind seems to sing of the river beyond the city and its pleasant westward reaches unknown to any cargo ship. The 'bus spins through Brompton, past Kensington, thunders down to Fulham past tall blind churches, and arrives at last at Putney, where the starlit river gleams away up toward Richmond, described as a thoroughfare of dreams. There, the speaker's beloved waits, straining her eyes through the dark to see the approaching 'bus. The working day is over, its dust and hurry past, and the two go down to the river together, hand in hand. The motor-'bus rolls on, and the couple pause to watch it tear away through the twilight, mysterious and fair — it has served as their love's bright chariot, the torch of their desires, kindling the London darkness with youthful fire. The poem closes on an apostrophe to youth in London, asking whether those young, eager footsteps on hot, hard pavements will ever be forgotten. Amid dust in the breezes and the stink of petrol staining the air, the poem affirms that youth has come to London and found a garden there.
By Sheila Kaye-Smith · Genre: Poetry, Ballad, Romance · 789 words
First lines
You get in at Ludgate Circus, / Where in regiments they stand, / All throbbing underneath the bridge, / And pointing to the Strand -- / All pageantry with colours, / All poetry with words, / Wait those blazoned motor-'buses / In their fiercely panting herds.
There are 'buses for the East, / There are 'buses for the West, / For North and South and Central / And where heaven pleases best -- / For the Elephant and Castle, / Gospel Oak and Parson's Green, / Some for Chelsea, some for Putney, / Some for Barnes, and some for Sheen.
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Genres
- Poetry — The work is fundamentally a poem written in verse with consistent rhyme scheme and metrical structure, making poetry the foundational genre classification.
- Ballad — The title explicitly identifies it as 'The Ballad of a Motor Bus'; a ballad is a narrative poem told in verse form that recounts a story, which this work exemplifies through the journey and romantic encounter.
- Romance — The narrative arc culminates in romantic reunion and love affirmation, with the motor-bus serving as the vehicle enabling the lover's journey to meet their beloved, expressing emotional devotion and passion.
- Narrative Poetry — The work tells a sequential story with clear plot progression from the bus departure through urban observations to the romantic encounter, distinguishing it from purely lyric poetry through its storytelling function.
Tags
rural-england · modernization-theme · social-change · village-community · tradition-vs-progress · sussex-setting · transportation-impact · early-twentieth-century · countryside-fiction · social-commentary · character-driven-narrative · class-dynamics
What this Textopian page supports
The Ballad of a Motor 'Bus is listed on Textopian as a poem by Sheila Kaye-Smith, dated Date unknown.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Sheila Kaye-Smith
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Poetry, Ballad, Romance, Narrative Poetry, Urban Literature
- Length: 789 words
- Structure: 1 section, 11 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)
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- Work identity for The Ballad of a Motor 'Bus by Sheila Kaye-Smith
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
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