Download AP Literature and Composition Poetry Unit Carefully read Walt

AP Literature and Composition
Poetry Unit
Carefully read Walt Whitman’s, To a Locomotive in Winter, and Emily Dickinson’s, I Like to See it Lap Up
the Miles. In a well-written, introductory paragraph, compare and contrast the tone of both poems.
Theoretically, this introductory paragraph would be a part of a larger essay in which you would respond
to the prompt in greater detail. Only provide the introductory paragraph. You have eight minutes.
S1L1
AP Literature and Composition
Poetry Unit
To a Locomotivei in Winter
Walt Whitman
Emily Dickinson
I like to see it lap the Miles Thee for my recitative,
And lick the Valleys up Thee in the driving storm even as now, the snow, the winter-day
And stop to feed itself at Tanks declining,
ii
Thee in thy panoply , thy measur'd dual throbbing and thy beat
And then - prodigious step
convulsive,
Thy black cylindric body, golden brass and silvery steel,
Around a Pile of Mountains Thy ponderous side-bars, parallel and connecting rods, gyrating,
And supercilious peer
shuttling at thy sides,
In Shanties - by the sides of Roads Thy metrical, now swelling pant and roar, now tapering in the
distance,
Thy great protruding head-light fix'd in front,
And then a Quarry pare
Thy long, pale, floating vapor-pennants, tinged with delicate purple,
The dense and murky clouds out-belching from thy smoke-stack,
To fit it's sides
Thy knitted frame, thy springs and valves, the tremulous twinkle of
And crawl between
thy wheels,
Complaining all the while
Thy train of cars behind, obedient, merrily following,
Through gale or calm, now swift, now slack, yet steadily careering;
In horrid - hooting stanza Type of the modern--emblem of motion and power--pulse of the
Then chase itself down Hill continent,
For once come serve the Muse and merge in verse, even as here I see
And neigh like Boanerges thee,
Then - prompter than a Star
With storm and buffeting gusts of wind and falling snow,
Stop - docile and omnipotent
By day thy warning ringing bell to sound its notes,
By night thy silent signal lamps to swing.
At it's own stable door Fierce-throated beauty!
Roll through my chant with all thy lawless music, thy swinging lamps
at night,
Thy madly-whistled laughter, echoing, rumbling like an earthquake,
i
rousing all,
Locomotive: a powered rail vehicle used for
pulling trains
Law of thyself complete, thine own track firmly holding,
ii
a complete or impressive collection of things.
(No sweetness debonair of tearful harp or glib piano thine,)
Thy trills of shrieks by rocks and hills return'd,
Launch'd o'er the prairies wide, across the lakes,
To the free skies unpent and glad and strong.
I Like to See it Lap Up the Miles
S1L1