I like to see it lap the Miles Analysis

Welcome to the land of symbols, imagery, and wordplay. Before you travel any further, please know that there may be some thorny academic terminology ahead. Never fear, Shmoop is here. Check out our...

For the most part, Ballad Stanza Dickinson's poems are often described as "hymn-like," which is actually a pretty good way of thinking about her sing-songy, musical verse; they're best read aloud t...

The speaker in this riddle is even more mysterious than the subject of the riddle itself. We figure out that she's talking about a train ("she" being an arbitrary gender assignment) – but who is...

The landscape the poem takes us to is fairly non-specific, but we can imagine it clearly nonetheless. The speaker describes a train winding its way over miles, dipping through valleys and around an...

Even before we figure out that "I like to see it lap the Miles" describes a train in motion, we can already feel the "chugga chugga (choo choo!)" rhythm of the railway. Dickinson's poem possesses a...

Dickinson wasn't one for giving poems grand (or even explanatory) titles – or, for that matter, any titles at all. Instead, her poems are most commonly referred to by their first lines (in this c...

Wacky, slippy-slidey, off-kilter slant rhymeDickinson's poems are deliciously deceptive in their apparent simplicity. When read aloud, this poem, like many of her others, seems effortlessly consist...

(4) Base CampThough this poem may seem kooky and confusing on a first reading (as it's supposed to – after all, it's a riddle), it's actually pretty straightforward, as Dickinson poems go. Compar...

Emily's father, Edward Dickinson, was instrumental in bringing the railroad to Amherst, MA, and he even led a parade in honor of the first train (source).It's possible to sing all of Emily Dickinso...

GSex is just a non-issue here. This poem expresses wonder, fascination, admiration – but that's about it. In fact, there aren't even any human bodies present at all.

Biblical ReferencesMark 3:17 (line 13 – "Boanerges")