|
Poet: Emily Dickinson
Poem: 754.
My Life had stood -- a Loaded Gun --
Volume: Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
Year: Published/Written in 1955
Comment 14 of 14, added on April 6th, 2008 at 6:09 PM.
This is about life long rage. She is the gun and she has had to be reclusive and live unnoticed, in corners of the rooms of her life. Had she been a man she may have had the opportunity to express herself in public, but in her society that was not possible.
She protects her patriarchal family and society by not expressing herself, but at the greatest cost to her - she has no agency, and this is the cause of her rage. In public she is the dutiful daughter, and even with the false smile - false because it is Vesuvian (after Mt. Vesuvius, which is a volcano which erupts, and when it does - did - it killed everyone - how much rage is that!)
Even at night she has to protect the paternal image. To have shared that soft pillow made of goose down would smother her, so she stays guarded and doesn't sleep on what looks so soft but is so dangerous.
She is so committed to keeping her stoical place in the paternal society that she will defend it - she is foe to anyone who is foe to "him." The emphatic thumb, that one can suck for comfort as a child can also have a "Freudian" interpretation, of something that is swollen, and the Vesuvian spew can be thought of that way as well. This doesn't mean that she had sexual relations with her father - rather that she is so enraged that she is stuck in the secondary role, only as guardian or protector of those who keep her from the freedom of being her own person - and she has to do this seemingly willingly.
And then in the last paragraph, she states that even though she could outlive her father, her family, men in general, she had better die first because the world is not a big enough place for both (all) of them and she would like to kill except that she has been taught that she must not. And she cannot even kill herself because that is also forbidden.
She is in a box from where there is no escape. This is not a love poem. This is a poem that shows anger in its rawest form. This is pure rage.
Susan from United States
Comment 13 of 14, added on August 30th, 2007 at 3:15 AM.
There is a hidden, subversive anger.. the tone of which is not very direct, for instance , like in Sylvia Plath's poetry. Emily Dickinson mocks at the phallogocentric world.. where the man is the precursor and the deciding factor to what a woman is supposed to do. The symbols of being a loaded gun ,also , a doe ... signify uselessness and the inner conflict felt as a woman. Also, the symbol of dove is a very gentle, loving ,maiden symbol.
Sneha from India
Comment 12 of 14, added on June 4th, 2007 at 10:43 AM.
I think this poem is the best I ever read. Emily is telling us that she had to freedom. She was trapped. She couldn't do her own thing. All she wanted to do is write poetry, but she wan't good enough because she wan't a man. I think this poem is the best she ever wrote. It really expresses how she feels.
Lisa Green from Italy
Are you looking for more information on this poem? Perhaps you are trying to analyze it? The poem, My Life had stood -- a Loaded Gun --, has received 14 comments. Click here to read them, and perhaps post a comment of your own. Of course you can also always discuss poems by Emily Dickinson with others on the American Poems poetry forum!
|
Comments
This is about life long rage. She is the gun and she has had to be reclusive and live unnoticed, in corners of the rooms of her life. Had she been a man she may have had the opportunity to express herself in public, but in her society that was not possible.
She protects her patriarchal family and society by not expressing herself, but at the greatest cost to her - she has no agency, and this is the cause of her rage. In public she is the dutiful daughter, and even with the false smile - false because it is Vesuvian (after Mt. Vesuvius, which is a volcano which erupts, and when it does - did - it killed everyone - how much rage is that!)
Even at night she has to protect the paternal image. To have shared that soft pillow made of goose down would smother her, so she stays guarded and doesn't sleep on what looks so soft but is so dangerous.
She is so committed to keeping her stoical place in the paternal society that she will defend it - she is foe to anyone who is foe to "him." The emphatic thumb, that one can suck for comfort as a child can also have a "Freudian" interpretation, of something that is swollen, and the Vesuvian spew can be thought of that way as well. This doesn't mean that she had sexual relations with her father - rather that she is so enraged that she is stuck in the secondary role, only as guardian or protector of those who keep her from the freedom of being her own person - and she has to do this seemingly willingly.
And then in the last paragraph, she states that even though she could outlive her father, her family, men in general, she had better die first because the world is not a big enough place for both (all) of them and she would like to kill except that she has been taught that she must not. And she cannot even kill herself because that is also forbidden.
She is in a box from where there is no escape. This is not a love poem. This is a poem that shows anger in its rawest form. This is pure rage.
Susan from United States