And none will hear the postman's knock
Without a quickening of the heart,
For who can bear to feel himself forgotten?
-- From Night Mail by W.H. Auden, written for a 1936 documentary film about the train that brought the mail from England to Scotland
Let not anyone in your life feel forgotten....write a letter today!
2 comments:
I was digging the letters I received last night and I found some on my photo album.
Rather late in commenting I'm afraid, but I've only just come across your marvelous blog (which I discovered as a result of buying a manual typewriter and joining LEX, but that is another story).
Anyway, I just wanted to thank you for this entry. There is a black & white film called Night Mail, which features the Auden poem. It's well worth seeing and, inevitably, can be found on YouTube.
Those first two lines make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up - Postal Orders, still available of course, but who uses them now? I remember my grandmother used them to send me money for my birthday or Christmas present, and I had to take them to the local Post Office to cash them. Nostalgia, it ain't what it used to be...
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