Many people remember Henry David Thoreau only as the author of Walden. Thoreau is generally thought of a man who lived the woods and wrote a long winded book about nature. This is a very limited view. Not only was Thoreau a master prose, he was also an accomplished poet. His writings are filled with verse.
The Poem "What's The Railroad To Me?" Is a fine example of one of Thoreau's shorter poems. This poem can be found in Walden under the chapter "Sounds.""Railroad" seems to be a poem of social criticism. By asking "What's the railroad to me?", the poet is meditating on the importance of new technologies. Thoreau seems to think that the only value of trains comes from the natural wonders railroads unwittingly stimulate. Swallows build their nest in the man-made banks beside the tracts, and Blackberry patches grow over the cleared fields next to the rails.
It is through short poems such as these that Thoreau sums up his prose. I find this poem most interesting because presently I often ask: "What is the Internet to me?" As long as there are new technologies to make life "easier" there will be people asking -"Do I really need this?"
"What's the railroad to me?
I never go to see
Where it ends.
It fills a few hollows,
And makes banks for the swallows,
It sets the sand a-blowing,
And the blackberries a-growing,
