The Railway Train
The Railway Train
Original Text
Poems (1890-1896) by Emily Dickinson: A Facsimile Reproduction of the Original Volumes Issued in 1890, 1891, and 1896, with an Introduction by George Monteiro (Gainesville, Florida: Scholars' Facsimiles).
2And lick the valleys up,
3And stop to feed itself at tanks;
4And then, prodigious, step
5Around a pile of mountains,
6And, supercilious, peer
7In shanties, by the sides of roads;
10Complaining all the while
12Then chase itself down hill
14Then, punctual as a star,
15Stop--docile and omnipotent--
16At its own stable door.
Notes
1] In 1853 two railroad lines came to Amherst, Emily's home (Johnson, Poems [1963], I: xx). Back to Line
8] a quarry pare: peel or shave (the sides of) the quarry Back to Line
9] sides: the existing manuscript version of poem 585 reads "ribs" The Manuscript Books of Emily Dickinson, edited by R. W. Franklin in volumes (Cambridge, Mass., and London: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1981: I, 414; fascicle 19; PS 1541 A1 1981 ROBA). Back to Line
11] stanza: small poem Back to Line
13] Boanerges: Mark 3. 17 describes how Jesus named his disciplines, the brothers James and John, "Boanerges, which is, The sons of thunder" Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1891
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
RPO 1997
Rhyme