I Like to See It Lap the Miles

Famed American poet Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) wrote “I like to see it lap the Miles” in 1891. Sometimes stereotyped as a recluse who composed riddle-like poems with idiosyncratic punctuation, Dickinson actually had a close relationship with her family, including her sister-in-law, Susan Gilbert, maintained a small social circle and a vigorous correspondence, communicating with intellectuals like Thomas Wentworth Higginson. 

Though Dickinson only published around ten poems during her life, she wrote approximately 1,800 poems that were published posthumously; “I like to see it lap the Miles” was one of these. As is the case for many of her poems, the first line serves as the title. Dickinson scholars typically number her poems based on when they were written. Scholars believe Dickinson wrote “Miles” between 1858 and 1862, or around the start of the US Civil War. An early authoritative Dickinson editor, Thomas Johnson, assigned “I like to see it lap the Miles” number 585. A later Dickinson editor, R. W. Franklin, gave it the number 383. 

 “Miles” is one of Dickinson’s more popular poems; it regularly appears in anthologies for young readers. Like Dickinson’s other poems, its playful simplicity belies a complexity: “Miles” addresses fraught themes like The Transgressive Force of Technology, Malleability and Weakness, and The Concealment of Humanity.

Poet Biography

Emily Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830, in Amherst, Massachusetts. She had two siblings—an older brother, Austin, and a younger sister, Lavinia (“Vinnie”). The Dickinsons were an affluent, influential family. Dickinson’s grandfather, Samuel Fowler, had helped establish Amherst College. Dickinson’s mother, Emily Norcross, was a homemaker from a family of prosperous farmers. Dickinson’s father, Edward, was a lawyer and politician who helped bring the railroad to Amherst by gathering support for the Amherst Depot. The creation of the train station and line inspired “I like to see it lap the Miles.” 

After attending school, Dickinson began to distance herself from social life, limiting her physical interactions to mostly family members in Amherst. Nevertheless, Dickinson had a deep friendship with Austin’s wife, Susan Gilbert. Dickinson also maintained a robust correspondence, exchanging letters with Josiah Holland and Samuel Bowels, the editors of The Springfield Republican, New England’s largest newspaper at the time, and with Thomas Wentworth Higginson, who published The Atlantic Monthly and led a regiment of Black Union soldiers during the US Civil War. 

According to Dickinson’s niece Martha Dickinson Bianchi, Dickinson chose relative solitude to focus on developing her mind. She read extensively and wrote myriad poems. She often organized the poems into booklets. After Dickinson died, Vinnie discovered the poems. Mabel Loomis Todd, a creative intellectual who had a long affair with Austin, edited hundreds of Dickinson’s poems, trying to make them more accessible by standardizing the punctuation. Faithful reproductions of Dickinson’s work weren’t widely available until Thomas Johnson published his compendium in 1955. 

Dickinson’s life continues to inspire books and other forms of media, such as the teen TV dramedy Dickinson.

Poem Text

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—prompter than a Star

Stop—docile and omnipotent

At it’s own stable door—

Dickinson, Emily. “I Like to See It Lap the Miles.” 1891. Poetry Foundation.

Summary

Dickinson’s poem describes the journey of a train by comparing it to a horse. For clarity, the summary discusses the train as a train—not a horse. 

The unnamed speaker enjoys watching the train travel long distances and traverse hills. After the train refuels (“feed itself at Tanks” [Line 3]), it continues its great journey through “a Pile of Mountains” (Line 5). 

The train is haughty; as it passes houses that aren’t in good shape, it disdainfully looks into them (“supercilious peer / In Shanties” [Lines 6-7]). The train returns to the mountains, where people cut away the rock so the train can pass through it. 

As the train rushes down a hill, it makes a loud, frightening sound (“horrid—hooting stanza” [Line 12]). The speaker thinks of the train’s noises in terms of preaching and compares the sounds to “Boanerges” (Line 14)—the last name that Jesus gave to the apostles James and John. 

Finally, as timely as a star, the all-powerful yet submissive (“docile and omnipotent” [Line 16]) train stops at its destination.