Literary Analysis Of My Life Had Stood A Loaded Gun

Poetry is often defined as a “literary work that uses a distinctive style of writing to express an idea or feelings.” Emily Dickinson’s “My Life had stood- a Loaded Gun” serves to be one of the most controversial poems as many individuals take on various interpretations on the work of art. Several readers regarded the poem as demonstrating the inferiority of women to men, which was prevalent during the nineteenth century in which the poem was written. Other readers found the poem to be a feminist statement that represents “women making a claim to great and lethal power” (Priddy 232). However, Dickinson’s “My Life had stood- a Loaded Gun” communicates how poetry possess a great and lethal power due to its ability to kill, but its inability to die. …show more content…
The symbolism presented in “My Life had stood- a Loaded Gun” demonstrates how the overall idea of vast and deadly power refers to the art of writing, particularly poetry. When it comes to writing a poem, it requires both a poet and a type of utensil. The poet is the one who is capable of creating a powerful, influential form of writing through the usage of a utensil, which in the case of the poem is a pen. Emily Dickinson, who is one of the nineteenth century’s greatest and significant poets, can support the idea that poetry itself can be persuasive with just a poet and a pen as she became quite influential in society through her poems. Dickinson acknowledges this as she used “My life” in reference to a pen and “the Owner” in reference to the poet. In beginning of the poem, “My life” (l.1) is the personified life of the pen that narrates throughout the poem and expresses the livelihood that it shares with its “owner” (l.3), which is the poet. The narrator of the poem is seen as