(A Remonstrance at a Railway Station)

The tympanum! The tympanum!

Oh! who will save the aural drum

By softening to some gentler squeak

The whistle's shrill staccato shriek?

Oh! Engine-driver, did you know

How your blast smites one like a blow,

An inward shock, a racking strain,

A knife-like thrust of poignant pain,

Whilst groping through the tunnel murk