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