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I like to see it lap the Miles- by Emily Dickinson

Analysis

"I like to see it lap the Miles-" is a poem by Emily Dickinson. In this writing, "it" refers to a train. It is somewhat of a riddle, actually. As she watches "it" "lick", "feed itself", "crawl", and "chase", and even "neigh". It's almost as if it is like a horse.

This poem consists of four stanzas with four lines in each. The second and fourth lines of each stanza contain an imperfect consonent rhyme common in much of Dickinson's poetry. As well, the first and third lines are written in iambic-quadrameter and the second and fourth are written in iambic-triameter. This is also quite common in her writings.

Johnson number: 585

Poem

I like to see it lap the Miles-
By 

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.
Next: I many times thought Peace had come

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Nationality
American

Literary Movement
19th Century

Subjects
Train, Nature