I Thought the Train Would Never Come

I Thought the Train Would Never Come - meaning Summary

Anticipation Upended by Arrival

The speaker anticipates a longed-for arrival and rehearses calm, clever responses, imagining the waiting as slow and plaintive. When the beloved finally appears, practiced words vanish and genuine emotion takes over. The poem contrasts expectation with spontaneous feeling, showing how preparation fails before intimacy. Its closing lines suggest that intense happiness can both atone for and complicate past miseries, merging joy with lingering sorrow.