Racing Trains

As the iron horse traveled through the valley, it had a goal. A dream. A mission, a Manifest Destiny to be connected from the Midwest regions through the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. Racing its way around the curves like horses on a racetrack. The Industrial Revolution helped influence this need for new technologies by inventing the railroads and the locomotive, rather than horses. In Emily Dickinson's "I Like to See it Lap the Miles", she is comparing the new technology experienced with the locomotive, against the call of the wild, the horse.

To begin, Dickinson starts describing the greatness of the railroads and the trains. She states in the first stanza, that the train can "lick the valleys up" (2), meaning, that the train can slither through all of the valleys and the mountainous curves like a snake through blades of grass. It was seen as flowing virtually effortlessly. Next, the train is observed to be "supercilious" (6), or condescending, arrogant, and proud. During the time of the Industrial Revolution, Americans were proud to be connecting the Midwest to the coasts of California. However, the train is symbolizing how American's were also arrogant and condescending, especially when it came to dealing with the destruction and damage to the land that was occurring during this time frame. However, the train is also being portrayed as difficult to work with. This is illustrated when Dickinson notes, that the train was "complaining all the while" (10). The journey was dangerous, granted; however this was a mighty concoction for America. It almost seems as if Dickinson is disappointed or getting somewhat agitated at the fact that after all of the arrogance and pride put into the railroads, that there would any complaining occurring.

In comparison to the train, Dickinson illustrates the horse throughout her poem. Only, the horse is seen as being quite inferior to the great majesty of the train. While the train rows and chugs along, the horse takes "one prodigious step" (4), and suddenly it seems as if all eyes are on the horse, as if something shocking has occurred. Throughout the second stanza, Dickinson then states how the horse(s) could be standing in a quarry. Unable to be put too proper use because the train is beginning to take over the American society. However, just the opposite is seen in the fourth stanza. The horses appear to be running and roaming all along the mountain trails and along the valleys, just as well as the train. Perhaps, the horses even have their own advantage because they do not have to build anything to be able to scale the mountainous adventures, or "chase itself down hill" (12), and into a valley like the trains must do in order to complete the railroad. It also gives hint, that although there was an attempt to intimidate them through the train, that they still stood "docile and omnipotent--" (15). In essence, the horse(s) belonging to nature's appeal gives them recognition to being quite holy, in which