Editor's Choice
In "Station," what does the train symbolize?
Quick answer:
In "Station," the train symbolizes the inevitable journey through life. It represents the son's transition from pre-adolescence to adulthood, as viewed by the nostalgic father. Literally, the boy is traveling from one parent to another, but metaphorically, the train signifies the stages of life, moving him forward just as life progresses.
The train in the poem "Station" represents the inevitable path one takes through life. The story is told from the point of view of a father saying farewell to his son as he boards a train at the station. The father takes note of exactly where along life's journey his son is and where he is himself.
When our cheeks rest glancing against each other, I feel mine scratchy with beard and stubble, his not quite smooth as a girl’s, harder, a faint fuzz.
The poem is full of sentimentalism and nostalgia. The father realizes that his son is entering adolescence, and he never will return from it. Beyond that lies manhood. The train will take the child to his mother's house. But, metaphorically as the father sees it, it will also take him forward through life. Life moves us all forward along a path, just as the train does.
The train seems to symbolize life and moving through the stages of life. Literally, the boy is going from one parent to the other, but symbolically, it represents moving through life. He is moving from pre-adolescence into adolescence and beyond, I think, into adulthood at the end, as the father mentions his moving out of sight.
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