Emily Dickinsons My Life Had StoodA Loaded Gun Essay

Emily Dickinsons My Life Had Stood:A Loaded Gun Emily Dickinson is a poet known for her cryptic, confusing language. Words are often put together in an unusual way and create deciphering difficulties for the reader. But behind all the confusion is a hidden meaning that becomes clear, and one realizes that all the odd word choices were chosen for a specific reason. The poem I will try to analyze is My Life Had Stood—A Loaded Gun, or number 754. I find this to be one of her most difficult poems to decode. However, I find the images fascinating and the last stanza very confusing but intriguing. What I first thought the poem was about and what I finally came to a conclusion on are two completely different thoughts. Through answering†¦show more content†¦The tone seems reflective, as if the narrator is retelling the story over, having thought about it many times. There is one point when irony is used—the last stanza is full of confusing words that contradict each other and are certainly not what one woul d expect after reading the preceding line. I feel the rhetorical situation is the narrator telling a story, perhaps something that happened long ago, and reflecting on it. Dickinson’s use of dashes—though she uses them frequently in all poems—assists to the feeling of story-telling. There are a few occasions throughout the poem when the use of dashes gives the idea of the narrator pausing and adding in a little extra information, maybe something that helps the reader understand the situation more. I think the reader is having a one-on-one meeting with the narrator, though the reader is never formally or specifically addressed. I think it could be that the narrator has gone off on a bit of a tangent, and is perhaps talking almost to his or herself, and glances back to the reader every once in a while to make sure he or she is still paying attention. There is plenty of figurative language in this poem, which adds to the poem’s richness. There are several metaphors: â€Å"loaded gun† (which I think is a metaphor for life), â€Å"Vesuvian face† (volcano), and â€Å"Yellow eye† (which I am not sure about), â€Å"Yellow Eye† and â€Å"emphatic Thumb,† which stand for some kind of weapon. Personification isShow MoreRelatedEmotion in Emily Dickinsons â€Å"My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun†1109 Words   |  5 PagesThis poem was written by American poet, Emily Dickinson, who was born in the 1800. This was the period where art was based on emotion; the â€Å"Romantic Period†. She was also born in the Victorian Era, where women had to be shackled to their pedestals and most had to be married by age eighteen. 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