‘I Like to See It Lap the Miles’

The Lackawanna Valley. George Inness. 1855.

 

Emily Dickinson

 

I like to see it  lap the miles,

And lick the valleys up,

And stop to feed itself at tanks;

And then, prodigious, step

 

Around a pile of mountains,

And, supercilious, peer

In shanties by the sides of roads;

And then a quarry pare

 

To fit its sides, and crawl between,

Complaining all the while

In horrid, hooting stanza;

Then chase itself down hill.

 

And neigh like Boanerges;

Then, punctual as a star,

Stop—docile and omnipotent—

At its own stable door.

2 thoughts on “‘I Like to See It Lap the Miles’”

    1. Do you mean that you are confused by Dickinson’s poem? In this, she describes a train as though it were a mythical horse.

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