Purpose. The article examines two aspects of the railway: as a cultural phenomenon and as an example of thematic motif in poetic text.

Results. The appearance of the railway was not only an important technical achievement, but also formed a previously unknown cultural code with distinctive features. Firstly, with a paradoxical sense of stability of the path and at the same time, promising disaster in case of deviation, incommensurable rides on horseback. Secondly, with the feeling of simultaneous presence into opposite spaces – at the unchanging point of the carriage and in the constantly changing panorama outside the window. Thirdly, a qualitatively new sense of rhythm, accelerated and hinting as the possibility of change. As a result, a new type of discursive reality arises, leading to an original type of text formation. So, in parallel with the cultural code, another arises – an artistic one, characterized by uniqueness and exclusivity. An example of an artistic code related to the theme of the railway is M. Tsvetaeva’s poem Rails (1923). Based on the tradition of traveling by rail as symbolic movement towards non-existence, Tsvetaeva actualizes the mortal motif in her own way, built on conflict of hard (iron) and soft (canvas), as well as on introducing a musical motif into the text (the linearity of musical lines) along with the original sound recording, creating the effect of a patronymic attraction.

Conclusion. Thus, in the poem Rails we observed the struggle of two models – generative inscribed in the paradigm of culture, and inter-iterative, actively opposing the paradigm and, thanks to syntagma, determining the self-closure of the poetic text.