A video of "My life had stood - a Loaded Gun (Link if video doesn't load https://youtu.be/o12cimazAoI)
Poem Analysis
My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun -
In Corners - till a Day The Owner passed - identified - And carried Me away - And now We roam in Sovreign Woods - And now We hunt the Doe - And every time I speak for Him The Mountains straight reply - And do I smile, such cordial light Opon the Valley glow - It is as a Vesuvian face Had let it’s pleasure through - And when at Night - Our good Day done - I guard My Master’s Head - ’Tis better than the Eider Duck’s Deep Pillow - to have shared - To foe of His - I’m deadly foe - None stir the second time - On whom I lay a Yellow Eye - Or an emphatic Thumb - Though I than He - may longer live He longer must - than I - For I have but the power to kill, Without - the power to die - Tom Beach and Amanda Walker
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Emily Dickinson, throughout her poem “My Life Had Stood - A Loaded Gun”, uses the symbols of the gun and the master to show that power will never die but it is useless without control. The speaker starts the poem by saying that their, “life had stood - a Loaded Gun -/ In Corners - till a Day/The Owner passed” (1-3). In this poem Dickinson uses the gun to symbolize power, after all a loaded gun has the power to kill anyone, the power to take life is a great one. Dickinson introduces another symbol during this stanza in the owner, who represents control. The power of the gun, while great, was just sitting “in corners” until the owner came, this power has always been there yet it hasn’t had a use without control. This helps show Dickinson’s theme in that even though the gun has power and will never die, since it can’t control it, the master ultimately has the power. Dickinson continues to show how the owner is actually the one with power later in the poem when the speaker says, “And when at Night - Our good Day done -/I guard My Master’s Head -” (13-14). Again while the loaded gun symbolizes great power it is still stuck serving those in control, the master. The idea that the greater power that the gun symbolizes still must guard a master and serve a master shows how valuable control is and how invaluable power without control is. By using these two objects as symbols, Dickinson again emphasizes her theme that one is only truly powerful if they have control. In the final stanza, Dickinson shows her theme in another way through the discussion of the mortality of the gun and the master. The gun describes how he will out live the master (21-22), this shows how power will always be around. The speaker continues this idea by saying, “For I have but the power to kill,/Without - the power to die -” (23-24). Even though the master and controller of this power are mortal, the power is immortal and will always be around. The idea that the gun can never die, introduced in this line, adds to the strength of this guns power. Yet once the owner dies, the gun won’t have anyone to fire it and may end up as it was in the beginning of this poem, in a corner waiting for someone with control to notice. Through the symbols of the gun and the master in her poem “My Life Had Stood - A Loaded Gun” Dickinson emphasizes the idea that while power may be immortal, it’s usefulness is hinged on the ability to control it.
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