My life had stood—a Loaded Gun— (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Emily Dickinson
- First Published: 1929
- Type of Work: Poem
- Genres: Poetry, Lyric poetry
- Subjects: Self-discovery, Power, personal or social, Murder or homicide, Nature, Self, Nineteenth century, Death or dying, Hunting or hunters, Guns, Arms or weapons
This poem is written as a riddle that challenges the reader to identify the speaker. On the literal level the speaker is a gun, loaded to do its owner's bidding. Its “smile” is like a Vesuvian eruption, laying low its master's enemies. None survive “On whom I lay a Yellow Eye—/ Or an emphatic Thumb—.” Though the master must live longer than the gun, the gun may also live longer than its master.
Critics have given this poem every variety of interpretation, almost none of them totally satisfactory. Most common (and least satisfying) is the argument that the poet is...
[The entire page is 573 words long]
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