My Life Had Stood A Loaded Gun

Emily Dickinson is a poet known for her cryptic, confusing language. Words are often put together in an unusual way and create deciphering difficulties for the reader. But behind all the confusion is a hidden meaning that becomes clear, and one realizes that all the odd word choices were chosen for a specific reason. The poem I will try to analyze is My Life Had Stood—A Loaded Gun, or number 754. I find this to be one of her most difficult poems to decode. However, I find the images fascinating and the last stanza very confusing but intriguing. What I first thought the poem was about and what I finally came to a conclusion on are two completely different thoughts. Through answering

In the poem, “My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun,” published around 1863, Emily Dickinson effectively uses metaphorical language in making the speaker compare him/her self to a loaded gun. The speaker speaks as if he/she is a loaded gun waiting to expose their full potential. When reading this poem, one could definitely see religious connotations in that one cannot reach his/her full potential without The Master’s – God’s – help and direction.

In the beginning of Emily Dickinson’s poem “754,” the narrator immediately compares her life to a weapon, “My Life had stood -- a Loaded Gun --” (754). Usually, when one thinks of a gun, he or she might think of death instead of love. In most cases, when a person owns or has a possession of a gun, that person might use the gun for protection. A gun is an inanimate object that has the potential or power to take the life of a human. From analyzing the poem “754,” the narrator symbolizes a loaded gun, full of potential, full of power, waiting to be in the possession of its owner for protection just as a bride waits to be wedded by her husband.

In the last stanza Dickinson restates how the married woman of the nineteenth century depends on her husband. Although the most confusing stanzas of the poem, it could be the woman telling us her husband must live longer than her. Dickinson writes that the gun, like most inanimate objects, lives longer than the hunter, like women often live longer than men, but the "Loaded Gun" is useless without the "Owner" there to operate it

Initially, it seems as if the “Death” presented in Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could not for Death –” was meant to parallel a suitor. In fact, Chris Semansky claims that “Death” in the poem “is personified as a suitor who takes his potential bride away from her busy life” (Semansky). However, with further investigation, it becomes evident that “Death” is actually a representation of God, extinguishing the possibility of a romantic aspect. “Death” does not show any definite affection toward the speaker, but rather, “He” is kind and respectful, which confirms that “Death” does not have to be seen as a suitor. Although there is no explicit mention of spirituality within the poem, given Dickinson’s Christian background, along with her consistent poetic themes involving life and death from a religious standpoint, an extended metaphor of God as “Death” is feasible. “Death” initially stops for the speaker because she is unable to stop for herself, revealing the inabilities of mankind and the need for help in some form. In “Because I could not stop for Death-,” Dickinson reveals that man’s short fallings are consolidated through the manifestation of God’s power. This is done through the illustration of a carriage ride as well as the strategic use of a flashback.

Emily Dickinson is considered one of the greatest poets today in America, yet in the 19th century her work was considered inconsequential, unconventional, and unacknowledged amongst many of her peers. Dickinson’s work is unique beyond measure, because it changed the traditional rules of rhythm. Emily Dickinson’s experience of lost loved ones throughout her childhood and on into her adulthood made a significant impact on her life. It impacted her by making her disgruntled towards religion, and obsessing on death. Miss. Dickinson’s writing did closely reflect her life experiences, and emotions. Yet, when examining Dickinson’s poetry closely one can identify it as though she shaped personalities, and occasions

Dickinson's poem focuses on the speaker's relationship with death as being more complex than some might feel inclined to imagine one's connection with it. It appears that the poet wants her readers to acknowledge that death is imminent and that it is

Her father was a working man, her mother -just like any other woman at this era- was a stay at home wife. Some great moments in human life seem longer than they are and moments of great revelation seem to stretch out forever (Gale, 2003). In this poem Emily Dickinson attempted to describe what no living human can know about life or death. In all of our lives we try to understand the poetic experience, but the closest thing to knowing the poetic experience it to know the

“Because I Could Not Stop For Death”, a poem by Emily Dickinson, contains an extended metaphor that gives the poem two different meanings that complement each other. This extended metaphor is the one that identifies marriage with Death. In the poem, Death is personified as a man who takes a woman on a carriage ride. The woman abandons everything she knows and watches life pass by until she arrives at an old house that would be her grave, where she would rest for eternity, aware of her loneliness and the passing of time.

Emily Dickinson’s use of poetic diction in poems 585 and 754 brings to life two inanimate objects, a train and a gun, both of which perform actions that are useful to man. Though these items cannot act on their own, Dickinson’s diction provides them with their own movements, characteristics, and feelings. In poem 585, a train’s daily journey is given a meaning beyond that of a cold, iron machine when Dickinson describes its animal qualities to show its strength, stubbornness, and perseverance. In poem 754, a gun is portrayed as a protective, devoted servant. In both of these poems, Emily Dickinson uses diction to give a train and a gun characteristics of animals to explain their behavior and

Death is seen through many people’s eyes as absolute end, but for Emily Dickinson, death was both a new beginning and inviting. Throughout many different poems Dickinson managed to flip the perception of death and force people to see it in a new light. The majority of her most popular works surround the idea that death isn’t as bad as it seems, and offer new perspective on the subject. To Dickinson, death was the universal equalizer, no matter what life you led, the successes or failures, death can bring everyone together, because of its inevitability.

In Dickinson's "My Life Had Stood—A Loaded Gun", I interpreted the poem literally, thinking the poem was really about a gun and the relationship with its owner. But as I read the poem more and more, I felt the power and rage engulfed into this piece. I also gathered that, like most of Dickinson's poetry,

The primary literary strategy in Emily Dickinson’s “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.

Throughout ‘The Gun’ the poet uses numerous methods to convey her changing attitude towards the violent themes associated with bringing a gun into a household as she becomes more acquainted with the new weapon and it acts as the gateway between power and pleasure.

In Dickinson's novel the first stanza shows how the woman is being passed by without having any voice, it specifically states, “My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun - In Corners - till a Day The Owner passed - identified -And carried Me away”. In the first stanza it is clear how the woman is referring to herself as a gun that is of no use to her “owner”. The owner is presumably a man and has minimal use for her as someone would for a gun. With that being said a gun is a weapon built with an immense power and it is ofter overlooked how powerful it is. The same goes for