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My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun –
by
Emily Dickinson
Home
Poetry
My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun –
Literary Devices
Symbols, Imagery, Wordplay
Intro
The Poem
Summary
Analysis
Themes
Quotes
Study Questions
Best of the Web
How to Read a Poem
Symbolism, Imagery, Wordplay
Life and Death
The Gun
Nature (and its dark side)
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Table of Contents
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My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun – Symbolism, Imagery & Wordplay
There’s more to a poem than meets the eye.
Life and Death
Though many elements of this poem are ambiguous, we know that there is some sort of collaboration taking place between the speaker’s life and the anger she feels. At times, these two concepts...
The Gun
The gun is a symbol of power and violence. Guns are dangerous, because they have the power to take life away instantly. By introducing us to a gun in the first line, our speaker makes sure that we...
Nature (and its dark side)
Our speaker brings up some fairly violent examples of nature in this poem: a doe being hunted in "Sovereign Woods," a volcanic mountain with a deadly track record, and a species of duck that plucks...
