Emily Dickenson’s poem titled My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun – is one of the many poetic works she created in her lifetime. The staple ambiguity of her poetry is ever present in this poem, which reflects the eccentric nature of Dickenson herself. This poem reflect the anger within her life and show how she is carried away by the male personified version of her anger and becomes an instrument of his. This poem offers an inside look into Dickenson’s psyche, as it show that she feels empowered by her anger despite the fact that she is a tool to him. This strange arrangement between Dickenson and her anger highlights the destructive and enabling power which anger allows every one of us to possess, and brings some insight into the poets strange
…show more content…
When reading this poem, we see that Dickenson has a great desire to conquer the one thing that has been haunting her entire life, and that is the Menace of Death. Therefore in the poem, she compares her life to a gun, a device that is considered to be the master of death, and wishing to become precise and controlling in its destructive power. Though much like a gun, Emily Dickenson is only able to achieve this control in her life when she is being wielded by something, and that something is her anger personified. This Masculine anger asserts the power that Dickenson is unable to have in her life as a women, and she states that when she is under the control of her anger, she is able to defy her position by hunting the “Doe” of her feminine status and is able to let said anger loose in the “Sovereign Woods” of power, where she is both within servitude of her anger while being empowered by it. She is dependent of her anger, and the anger of her; both must be together or they will be forced to be at the mercy of the Menace of Death. Here is where the whole poem circles back to, because Dickenson lives in fear of death, she strives to empower herself and to become something more than a women. Which explains Dickenson’s need to have anger control her, due to the courage and power that can stem from it. All of her anger she used to become brave controlled her all her life hoping to stop death, which makes her death all the more
When reading this poem, we see that Dickenson has a great desire to conquer the one thing that has been haunting her entire life, and that is the Menace of Death. Therefore in the poem, she compares her life to a gun, a device that is considered to be the master of death, and wishing to become precise and controlling in its destructive power. Though much like a gun, Emily Dickenson is only able to achieve this control in her life when she is being wielded by something, and that something is her anger personified. This Masculine anger asserts the power that Dickenson is unable to have in her life as a women, and she states that when she is under the control of her anger, she is able to defy her position by hunting the “Doe” of her feminine status and is able to let said anger loose in the “Sovereign Woods” of power, where she is both within servitude of her anger while being empowered by it. She is dependent of her anger, and the anger of her; both must be together or they will be forced to be at the mercy of the Menace of Death. Here is where the whole poem circles back to, because Dickenson lives in fear of death, she strives to empower herself and to become something more than a women. Which explains Dickenson’s need to have anger control her, due to the courage and power that can stem from it. All of her anger she used to become brave controlled her all her life hoping to stop death, which makes her death all the more