Emily Dickinson

In my Intro to the English major class, we discussed today multiple poems, including one written by Emily Dickinson. The name of the poem is "My Life had Stood a Loaded Gun". I really enjoyed sitting in class and listening to the interpretations that other students offered up on the first stanza that we read together.

My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun -

In Corners - till a Day

The Owner passed - identified -

And carried Me away -

I had a very different idea, however, of what I thought this poem meant, or at least what it meant to me. As I sat in my chair, I was imagining that the loaded gun was Dickinson's life, and she was watching herself sitting in the corner, ready to go and take action at any second, like a loaded gun. The "Owner" that Dickinson speaks of in the next line doesn't seem to be God, but I believe that she is referring to herself. She is the owner of her own life, and she picks herself up and moves on ("And carried Me away-"). After researching the poem a bit online, I found that others thought the poem was about female empowerment. This could also be very true, and goes along with my own ideas that Dickinson didn't want to sit in the corner any longer and be ignored, she wanted to stand up and live her life.