Emily Dickinsons My Life Had Stood a Loaded Gun Essay

The primary literary strategy in Emily Dickinson’s â€Å"My Life Had Stood – a Loaded Gun†, is a metaphor of a gun and its master which is used to represent a wife and her husband. This metaphor is used to illustrate an unbalanced relationship where the wife is objectified and lacks agency. The wife reduced to an object which is at the disposal of her hunter/master/husband. The gun narrates the poem and it takes pleasure in expressing its power to kill. The poem presents the challenge of identifying who the speaker is and who the gun metaphorically represents (Forman). To help solve this riddle, Angela Estes asks, â€Å"For whom in the nineteenth century would pleasure and power be problematic should they be expressed?†. A female speaker is the†¦show more content†¦The poem describes the hunter/husband and gun/wife lives together as they roam the woods and hunt doe. The gun/wife propels her husband to loftier heights with her power (Palmerino). In contrast to her life prior life in the corners where she sat unnoticed, when the gun/wife now speaks â€Å"The Mountains straight reply -†. In other words, when the gun is fired there is a echo. Now she can be heard and her power can be felt. She has an effect on her surroundings. This can allude to how as a married women, the wife now has a higher social status and is more likely to be taken seriously and listened to. In the fifth section, the gun comes to the peak of her power and sounds like she has autonomous agency, or as Vendler describes it, the gun takes a â€Å"grammatically independent action† (319). The speaker says that â€Å"I lay a Yellow Eye† as if she is doing something on her own. However, guns cannot kill people; they cannot pull their own trigger. In this gun/master metaphor, the wife/gun is an object entirely reliant on other people to give direction and purpose in her existence. Therefore, the action is only seemingly independent and is perhaps a sign a wishful thinking on the gun/wifes part to not view herself as dependent. When the wife/gun does seem to realize how dependent she is, she becomes almost frantic. She says the hunter/husband must live long than her because â€Å"I have the power to kill, / WithoutShow MoreRelatedEmotion in Emily Dickinsons â€Å"My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun†1109 Words   |  5 P agesThis poem was written by American poet, Emily Dickinson, who was born in the 1800. This was the period where art was based on emotion; the â€Å"Romantic Period†. She was also born in the Victorian Era, where women had to be shackled to their pedestals and most had to be married by age eighteen. They were not allowed to vote, or earn money. This information should help the reader better understand the poem. When writing the poem â€Å"My Life had stood—a Loaded Gun† Dickinson thought of what format to useRead More`` It Was Not Death, For I Stood Up, By Emily Dickinson1728 Words   |  7 Pagesa specific focus on Emily Dickinson’s link of mental illness to reclusiveness within her works titled â€Å"It was not Death, for I stood up,† â€Å"After great pain, a Formal feeling comes,† â€Å"I dwell in Possibility,† â€Å"My Life had stood—a Loaded Gun,† and â€Å"Tell all the Truth but tell it slant†.† Emily Dickinson is one of the most influential female poets of the 19th century. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts in 1830, Dickinson began her life as a normal child. Growing up, Dickinson had more opportunities thanRead MoreMy Life Had Stood a Loaded Gun by Emily Dickinson Essay804 Words   |  4 PagesMy Life Had Stood a Loaded Gun by Emily Dickinson Today, few would deny that Emily Dickinson is an important figure in American literature. The numerous ways to interpret her poetry draws more and more readers into her publications. Its as if everyone could interpret Dickinsons poems into his or her personal life; seeing the poems the way they want to see it. This is the effect flexible poems have on people. In Dickinsons My Life Had Stood#8212;A Loaded Gun, I interpreted theRead MoreEmily Dickinsons Capitalization and Punctuation1251 Words   |  6 PagesThe poetry of Emily Dickinson is one of the most recognizable of the 19th century. Dickinson’s poetry stands out because of its unconventional use of capitalization and punctuation. Her poems contain capitalized words which are not normally capitalized. Her poems are noted for the frequent use of the dash. Literary scholars have attempted to interpret Dickinson’s unconventional capitalization and punctuation. Some believe that it was merely part of Dickinson’s penmanship (Weisbuch 73). 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That being said, many female writers at the time, including Emily Dickinson and Charlotte Perkins Gilman, were determined to examine the mind behind the American woman, through the lens of mental illness and personal experience. This essay will compare the workRead MoreBibliography Relation to Analysis of Emily Dickinson ´s Writings2048 Words   |  8 Pages Anderson, Paul W. The Metaphysical Mirth of Emily Dickinson. Georgia Review 20.1 Spring 1966): 72-83. Rpt. in Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism. Ed. Jessica Bomarito and Russel Whitaker. Vol. 171. Detroit: Gale, 2006. Literature Resource Center. Web. 14 Feb. 2014. Anderson accomplishes the discernment of Dickinson’s poems and their allusions to many classic myths. He denotes the figurative language that Dickinson utilizes in her poetry to relate to her themes. With these key elements inRead MoreEssay on A poem and a loaded gun1111 Words   |  5 Pages A Poem and a Loaded Gun The post civil war era was wrought with sexism and backwards thinking. Emily Dickinson was born in 1830, wrote 1800 poems in her lifetime. She has become known for unfolding the social boundaries surrounding women in this time period. Most of her life was shrouded in seclusion and mystery. In the realm of poetry, authors are creative with their usage of literary techniques in order to illustrate their point of view to the reader. Emily Dickinson is especially known for herRead More The Life Of Emily Dickinson Essay799 Words   |  4 Pages The Life of Emily Dickinson nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Although she lived a seemingly secluded life, Emily Dickinsons many encounters with death influenced many of her poems and letters. Perhaps one of the most ground breaking and inventive poets in American history, Dickinson has become as well known for her bizarre and eccentric life as for her incredible poems and letters. Numbering over 1,700, her poems highlight the many moments in a 19th century New Englander womans life, includingRead MoreAnalysis Of Emily Dickinson s Poem My Life Had Stood- A Loaded Gun 993 Words   |  4 PagesEmily Dickinson is a very famous and accomplished poet with over 1700 published poems. Several of her poems are similar in theme, and also similar in bringing out human emotions that we humans usually try to avoid. The common theme in most of Dickinson s poems is the wonders of nature, and the identity of self, as well as death and life. The five poems with the common theme of death are: â€Å"My Life had Stood- A Loaded Gun†, â€Å"I Heard A Fly Buzz- When I Died†, â€Å"Behind Me Dips- Eternity†, â€Å"Because I