Walt Whitman’s to a Locamotive in Winter

Walt Whitman's “To A Locamotive in Winter” and Emily Dickinson's “I Like to See It Lap The Miles” are two very different poems about the same subject. Where Whitman uses strictly free verse, Dickinsons work is much more structured, with poynient line breaks, and punctuation. Their styles of personification also differ greatly. Where Whitman's work is almost an ode to the locomotive, Dickinson's is more a feeling of a journey. Another major difference in these works is the language they use. Where Whitman uses “old english” with thee and thy, Dickinson uses a fairly modern vocabulary.

As I peruse these works, the first thing I notice is the language. Dickinson is far simpler to read than Whitman's, only because of her updated vocabulary. However, some of the descriptors that Whitman uses, are in the least, beautiful. Words such as “Panoply, madly-whistled laughter, and free skies unpent..” Dickinson shouldent be left out however. She can throw around some beautiful phrases as well; “prodigeous step, punctual as a star, and Docile and Omnipotent” were some of my favorites. These works paint two very different pictures of trains by having different tones, and vocabularies.

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