“My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun” Summary

“My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun” Themes

• 

  Power, Rage, and Gender

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• 

  The Relationship Between God and Humanity

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• 

  The Power of Creativity

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun”

• Lines 1-4

  My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun -
  In Corners - till a Day
  The Owner passed - identified -
  And carried Me away -

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 5-8

  And now We roam in Sovreign Woods -
  And now We hunt the Doe -
  And every time I speak for Him
  The Mountains straight reply -

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-12

  And do I smile, such cordial light
  Opon the Valley glow -
  It is as a Vesuvian face
  Had let it’s pleasure through -

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 13-18

  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 -

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 19-24

  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 -

  

  

  

  

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“My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun” Symbols

• 

  Doe

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“My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Anaphora

  

  

  

  

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• Extended Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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• Personification

  

  

  

  

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• Caesura

  

  

  

  

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• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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• Consonance

  

  

  

  

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• Assonance

  

  

  

  

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• Diacope

  

  

  

  

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“My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Sovreign
• Doe
• Cordial
• Opon
• Vesuvian
• Eider Duck
• Foe

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun” Speaker

“My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun”

More “My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun” Resources

• External Resources

  • Wild Nights With Emily — The cast of the film Wild Nights With Emily—based on Dickinson's letters—on what modern readers don't know about Dickinson. 

  • PBS NewsHour Feature — A short PBS NewsHour feature on the 2017 Dickinson exhibition at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York.

  • Dickinson's Handwriting — An image of an original manuscript of this poem.

  • The Dickinson Archive — An open-access website of Emily Dickinson's manuscripts. 

  • Susan Howe on Emily Dickinson — An interview with Susan Howe discussing Dickinson. It includes a reading from her award-winning book of creative scholarship, focusing primarily on this poem.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Emily Dickinson

  • A Bird, came down the Walk

  • After great pain, a formal feeling comes –

  • A Light exists in Spring

  • A Murmur in the Trees—to note—

  • A narrow Fellow in the Grass

  • An awful Tempest mashed the air—

  • As imperceptibly as grief

  • A still—Volcano—Life—

  • Because I could not stop for Death —

  • Before I got my eye put out

  • Fame is a fickle food

  • Hope is the thing with feathers

  • I cannot live with You –

  • I cautious, scanned my little life

  • I could bring You Jewels—had I a mind to—

  • I did not reach Thee

  • I died for Beauty—but was scarce

  • I dreaded that first Robin, so

  • I dwell in Possibility –

  • I felt a Funeral, in my Brain

  • If I can stop one heart from breaking

  • I had been hungry, all the Years

  • I have a Bird in spring

  • I heard a Fly buzz - when I died -

  • I like a look of Agony

  • I like to see it lap the Miles

  • I measure every Grief I meet

  • I’m Nobody! Who are you?

  • I started Early — Took my Dog —

  • I taste a liquor never brewed

  • It was not Death, for I stood up

  • I—Years—had been—from Home—

  • Like Rain it sounded till it curved

  • Much Madness is divinest Sense -

  • Nature is what we see

  • One need not be a Chamber — to be Haunted

  • Publication — is the Auction

  • Safe in their Alabaster Chambers

  • Shipwreck

  • Success is counted sweetest

  • Tell all the truth but tell it slant —

  • The Brain—is wider than the Sky—

  • The Bustle in a House

  • The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants

  • There came a Wind like a Bugle

  • There is no Frigate like a Book

  • There's a certain Slant of light

  • There's been a Death, in the Opposite House

  • The saddest noise, the sweetest noise

  • The Sky is low — the Clouds are mean

  • The Soul has bandaged moments

  • The Soul selects her own Society

  • The Wind – tapped like a tired Man –

  • They shut me up in Prose –

  • This is my letter to the world

  • This World is not Conclusion

  • 'Twas the old—road—through pain—

  • We grow accustomed to the Dark

  • What mystery pervades a well!

  • Whose cheek is this?

  • Wild nights - Wild nights!