My life had stood—a Loaded Gun—
by Emily Dickinson
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At a glance:
- Author: Emily Dickinson
- First Published: 1929
- Type of Poem: Lyric
- 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
The Poem
“My Life had stood—a Loaded Gun—” (the title is not Emily Dickinson’s, since she did not title her poems) is a short poem of twenty-four lines divided into six stanzas. The poem is written in the first person from the point of view of a speaker who compares her life to “a Loaded Gun.” In fact, the voice of the speaker and the voice of the gun are identical throughout the poem.
In the opening stanza of the poem, the speaker tells how her life—of which she speaks as if it were “a Loaded Gun”—had been full of potential power yet unused and...
(The entire page is 1866 words.)
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