Poetical Analysis: My Life Had Stood A Loaded Gun

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Emily Dickinson Emily Dickinson was a reclusive American poet. Unrecognized in her own time, Dickinson is known posthumously for her unusual use of form and syntax. She was born on December 10, 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts. She left school early, living a reclusive life on the family homestead. There, she secretly created bundles of poetry and wrote hundreds of letters. Emily Dickerson is now considered one of the towering figures of American literature. Dickinson died of kidney disease in Amherst, Massachusetts, on May 15, 1886, at the age of 55. She was laid to rest in her family plot at West Cemetery. The Homestead, where Dickinson was born, is now a museum. The turning point in Dickinson’s career as a poet, and hence in her life, …show more content…

This poem was written around 1863 and published in 1929. It is one of Dickinson’s most controversial poems. It has triggered multiple different interpretations, ranging from the description of a male-female relationship over the battle and subversion of an oppressed woman, to seeing it as a poem about language and what it means to be a poet. “My life had stood a loaded gun” is one of the single most difficult poems Emily Dickinson wrote (Bauer,

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