Emily Dickinson's My Life Had Stood-- A Loaded Gun

Emily Dickinson's poem is an allegory, which on the symbolic level, the "Gun" represents the poet and the "Master" represents the person or soul mate that was meant to be the "poet". The speaker in the poem is clearly the "Gun" this is clear in the second stanza when the speaker says "And every time I speak for Him--/ The Mountains straight reply" "I" stands for the "Gun". This is also a personification because the "Gun" is being attributed human traits. The poem begins "My Life had stoodÐ'--a Loaded Gun--" This line is a metaphor. Dickinson juxtapose her life to a "Loaded Gun" what gives the impression that the speaker had the power to control because guns are object used either to express authority or command, and again hints the theme of the poem which is "power". The poem is told in lyrical form. The tone of this poem is one of passion this is established in the fist stanza where the speaker says "My Life had stoodÐ'--a Loaded Gun--/ In Corners--" the word corners gives the impression that the speaker felt inutile until his/ her soul mate came for him/her. "Ð'--till a day the Owner passed--identified--/ and carried Me away". Words such as " shared", "carried", " roam", work together to establish a loving mood. Like in most of Dickinson's poetry, the reader encounters an unconventional style and the same punctuation and capitalization usage which denote an emphasis on important words or her refusal to use periods which mark an end while dashes convey a continuation. This poem resembles a ballad telling an adventure of a "Gun" and its "Owner" who cannot act without his "Gun". The fist stanza alludes to the poet's life to that of an inanimate object "Gun" something not living, yet full of power, hence the word "Loaded". The