I like to see it lap the miles | I like to see it lap the miles

I like to see it lap the miles

Language: English

Our translations: FRE GER

I like to see it lap the miles,
And lick the valleys up,
And stop to feed itself at tanks;
And then, prodigious, step

Around a pile of mountains,
And, supercilious, peer
In shanties by the sides of roads;
And then a quarry pare

To fit its [sides]¹, and crawl between,
Complaining all the while
In horrid, hooting stanza;
Then chase itself down hill

And neigh like Boanerges;
Then, punctual as a star,
Stop - docile and omnipotent -
At its own stable door.

Available sung texts: ← What is this?

• G. Getty • G. Perle

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Getty, Perle: "ribs"

Text Authorship:

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Poems by Emily Dickinson, first published 1891 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

by Gordon Getty (b. 1933), "I like to see it lap the miles" [ soprano and piano ], from The White Election - A Song Cycle for soprano and piano on 32 poems of Emily Dickinson, Part 3 : Almost Peace, no. 19 [sung text checked 1 time]
by George Perle (1915 - 2009), "I like to see it lap the miles", 1977 [ voice and piano ], from Thirteen Dickinson Songs, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
by William Keith Rogers (b. 1921), "I like to see it lap the miles", published 1948 [ SATB chorus a cappella ], from Three Songs from Emily Dickinson, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
by Adolf Weiss (1891 - 1971), "The railway train", 1928, published c1930 [ soprano and string quartet ], from Seven Songs for Soprano and String Quartet, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 16
Word count: 84