You no longer need to bring a book to while away the time in the Metro any more. Starting with the 17th of November, a new “Poetry in the Metro” train runs along the Fili line. The Poetry train will introduce Metro passengers to the best poets of many countries of the world. The first set of poems is dedicated to the five greatest poets of Chile. The walls of the train are covered with quatrains and octaves by Pablo Neruda, Gabriela Mistral, Vicente Uidobro, Gonsalo Rojas and Nikanor Parra. Aboard the train, passengers will also have an opportunity to read the poets’ biographies and to find out about the project. The authors of the Moscow Metro’s cultural projects are convinced that people need such trains as the “Aquarelle”, the “Reading Moscow” and “Poetry in the Metro”. People live with a very tight schedule; they are short of time for reading, visiting museums and exhibitions. The authors of the project say: “We bring art closer to our passengers”. The Metro staff-members mark with satisfaction that there is no vandalism in the “cultural” trains. London Underground and Shanghai Metro are the only other systems to share in this literary experience. But Moscow is the only city with a permanent poetry train.
So simple it is to implement a great idea if there is a good management scheme and it respond to the needs of the many. Such things should develop in their own right. I wonder if any of you has ever thought about such a social action. There are many ends to it. Time will pass and people will definitely say that 'train-based learning' has also been a foundation of their success. It there we such buses or trolley-buses in our city, I would probably drive less and take city transport to work or home.
But it isn't the first "educational" train! There is also "the Kursk Bulge Train" where you can read information about Great Patriotic War, "Red arrow - 75 years", there is also baby train with different bright pictures and passages from Russian fairy tales and poems.
I like this idea. It's really good in its aim to make people get acquainted with the world of poetry. Probably, there can be also "Trains of Prose/Fiction", and esp. "The Train of E. Hemingway (In Our Time)"
No doubt, all that is very innovative, useful and simply interesting but we should take into account "the peculiarity of our mentality". Don't you think that the writers' portraits will soon be "decorated" with...h'm...moustache and stuff like that?
Yes, I also thought about it while reading the article. Sometimes we come across such disgusting acts of vandalism... I do hope that the same won't happen to these "poetry trains"...
I think it's a brilliant idea! This is the easiest way to "educate the masses". Really, when going somewhere by bus or by trolleybus I tend to read all the ads hanging there. If it were not ads but poetry, it would be much more useful and, to my mind, much more pleasant.
