The Railway Train

by


Dickinson's poem is also known as I Like to See It Lap the Miles, which allows readers to guess Dickinson's riddle. This is a favorite Dickinson poem, often studied by middle school students.
The Railway Train
Steam locomotive running gear
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.

Featured in our selection of Poetry for Students and Children's Poems
You might also like Henry David Thoreau's poem, What's the Railroad to Me?


6.9

facebook share button twitter share button reddit share button share on pinterest pinterest


Add The Railway Train to your library.

Return to the Emily Dickinson library , or . . . Read the next poem; There Came a Wind Like a Bugle

© 2022 AmericanLiterature.com