I Like to See It Lap the Miles
18 pages • 36-minute read
Emily DickinsonI Like to See It Lap the Miles
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Symbols & Motifs
The Train
The train is a symbol of technological advancement. Its comparison to a horse makes technology seem friendly and familiar—like another strong tamed animal—but Dickinson regularly undercuts the quaint depiction. Like the train, technology is voracious. It collapses distances and fits into a variety of spaces. Technology also threatens nature, upsetting the natural order by being “prompter than a Star” (Line 15), producing “horrid—hooting” (Line 12), and forcing mountains to be shaved into quarries for its passage.
The progress of technology does not benefit all equally. The presence of “Shanties” (Line 7) hints at the fates of the people responsible for keeping the train on its rail—they live in sad shacks by the side of the tracks, exposed to the noise and disruption the train brings. In contrast, those who own this technology evade responsibility for their inventions by presenting technology as autonomous—the speaker is delighted to image the train as “docile and omnipotent” (Line 16) creature, one of bridled power.
Shanties
The small, vulnerable houses the train passes by symbolize socioeconomic inequity. After traversing the mountains, the train takes a “supercilious peer / In Shanties—by the sides of Roads” (Lines 6-7). The image juxtaposes the wealth this technological achievement brings to the robber barons who control it with the poverty of the shanties’ residents, who are responsible for the actual existence of the tracks the train traverses. The speaker compounds the economic difference with the train’s “supercilious peer” (Line 6)—a snobby, dismissive, disdainful glance at the people in the shanties. The train might see them, as might the people riding the train, but to the speaker the shanty-dwellers must remain invisible—seeing them would mar the image of the marvelous machine. Through the shanties, Dickinson illustrates a fraught, ongoing economic dynamic.
Movement
The motif of movement supports the three primary themes. The train’s agility turns into a transgressive force. The train, like technology, adapts to different contexts. It can take a “prodigious step (Line 4) or “crawl between” (Line 10) mountains. Either way, the train overcomes obstacles.
The train also moves freely between categories. Technology allows the train to identify as a horse, a human, and an element of nature. The train is pliable and thus vulnerable. It has needs, and to travel great distances it must “feed itself at Tanks” (Line 3). Even with fuel, the pressure to move bothers the train, leading to screeching complaints.
The motif highlights the relative stagnation of people. While the train is bold and active, the speaker is inert, watching the train rather than traveling with it. The people in the shanties experience a different immobility, as they can’t reach a higher socioeconomic class. People on the train are only moving indirectly—being carried while sitting in their seats. The motif suggests that technology is exciting but it doesn’t necessarily prompt humans to take equally thrilling physical action.
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