The Railway Train
Emily Dickinson, 1896

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, and crawl between,
Complaining all the while
In horrid, hooting stanza;
Then chase itself down hill

And neigh like Boanerges1;
Then, punctual as a star,
Stop—docile and omnipotent—
At its own stable door.

1The name of a thoroughbred race horse famous in North America in the late 19th century

Which of the following best describes the form of Emily Dickinson's "The Railway Train"?

Ballad
Sonnet
Free verse
Haiku