I like to see it lap the Miles— (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Emily Dickinson
- First Published: 1891
- Type of Work: Lyric
- Genres: Poetry, Lyric poetry
- Subjects: United States or Americans, Nineteenth century, Cats, Trains, Bible, biblical imagery, or biblical symbolism, Horses, Railroads, Puns or punning
The Poem
As the title given to it by the first editors of Emily Dickinson’s poem suggests, “I like to see it lap the Miles—” is about a train. It was not unusual for Emily Dickinson to write short descriptive poems of this kind, although she more often wrote about natural objects than mechanical ones. In this poem, she uses natural images to describe a thing which is only nearly named in a pun.
Dickinson first describes the thing as if it were like a cat, lapping and licking so many miles like so much milk. When it stops “to feed itself at tanks,” however,...
[The entire page is 1583 words long]
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