A train went by but nothing seemed to be changed. Some eye at a car window must have flashed From the plush world inside the glassy Pullman, Carelessly bearing off the scene forever, With idle wonder what the men were doing, Seeing they were so strangely fixed and seeing Torn papers from their smeary dreary meal Spread on the ground with old tomato cans Muddy with dregs of lukewarm chicory, Neglected while they listened to the song. And while he sang the singer's face was lifted, And the sky shook down a soft light upon him Out of its branches where like fruits there were Many beautiful stars and planets moving, With lands upon them, rising from their seas, Glorious lands with glittering sands upon them, With soils of gold and magic mould for seeding, The shining loam of lands afoam with gardens On mightier stars with giant rains and suns There in the heavens; but on none of all Was there ground better than he stood upon: There was no world there in the sky above him Deeper in promise than the earth beneath him Whose dust had flowered up in him the singer And three men understanding every word. The Tramp Sings: I will sing, I will go, and never ask me "Why?" I was born a rover and a passer-by. I seem to myself like water and sky, A river and a rover and a passer-by. But in the winter three years back We lit us a night fire by the track, And the snow came up and the fire it flew And we couldn't find the warming room for two. One had to suffer, so I left him the fire And I went to the weather from my heart's desire. It was night on the line, it was no more fire, But the zero whistle through the icy wire. As I went suffering through the snow Something like a shadow came moving slow. I went up to it and I said a word; Something flew above it like a kind of bird. I leaned in closer and I saw a face; A light went round me but I kept my place. My heart went open like an apple sliced; I saw my Saviour and I saw my Christ. Well, you may not read it in a book, But it takes a gentle Saviour to give a gentle look. I looked in his eyes and I read the news; His heart was having the railroad blues. Oh, the railroad blues will cost you dear, Keeps you moving on for something that you don't see here. We stood and whispered in a kind of moon; The line was looking like May and June. I found he was a roamer and a journey man Looking for a lodging since the night began. He went to the doors but he didn't have the pay. He went to the windows, then he went away. Says, "We'll walk together and we'll both be fed." Says, "I will give you the `other' bread." Oh, the bread he gave and without money! O drink, O fire, O burning honey! It went all through me like a shining storm: I saw inside me, it was light and warm. I saw deep under and I saw above, I saw the stars weighed down with love. They sang that love to burning birth, They poured that music to the earth.