A SOFA IN THE FORTIES All of us on the sofa in a line, kneeling Behind each other, eldest down to youngest. Elbows going like pistons, for this was a train And between the jamb-wall and the bedroom door Our speed and distance were inestimable. First we shunted, then we whistled, then Somebody collected the invisible For tickets and very gravely punched it As carriage after carriage under us Moved faster, chooka-chook, the sofa legs Went giddy and the unreachable ones Far out on the kitchen floor began to wave. Ghost-train? Death-gondola? The carved, curved ends, Black leatherette and ornate gauntness of it Made it seem the sofa had achieved Flotation. Its castors on tiptoe, Its braid and fluent backboard gave it airs Of superannuated pageantry: When visitors endured it, straight-backed, When it stood off in its own remoteness, When the insufficient toys appeared on it On Christmas mornings, it held out as itself, Potentially heavenbound, earthbound for sure, Among things that might add up or let you down. We entered history and ignorance Under the wireless shelf. Yippee-i-ay, Sang "The Riders of the Range." HERE IS THE NEWS, Said the absolute speaker. Between him and us A great gulf was fixed where pronunciation Reigned tyrannically. The aerial wire Swept from a treetop down in through a hole Bored in the window frame. When it moved in wind, The sway of language and its furtherings Swept and swayed in us like nets in water Or the abstract, lonely curve of distant trains As we entered history and ignorance. We occupied our seats with all our might, Fit for the uncomfortableness. Constancy was its own reward already. Out in front, on the big upholstered arm, Somebody craned to the side, driver or Fireman, wiping his dry brow with the air Of one who had run the gauntlet. We were The last thing on his mind, it seemed; we sensed A tunnel coming up where we'd pour through Like unlit carriages through fields at night, Our only job to sit, eyes straight ahead, And be transported and make engine noise. -- Seamus Heaney (b. 1939 Mossbawn, Co. Derry).