Close reading Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 3

Close reading - Essay Example The first stanza has also been endowed with a caesura. This part sets out the referent point of the poem. Though â€Å"My Life† has been used as the subject of the first line of the first stanza, it sets out the subject for the entire poem. â€Å"My Life† becomes the subject of the entire poem through the application of the caesura. Emily Dickinson uses personification of the â€Å"gun† to mean the poet which should otherwise been her to mean a woman can be a weapon. The poet has been kept in the corner of the room until the owner passed and carried her away. This is a clear illustration of how women are not allowed to go looking for suitors for but are meant to wait until a suitor comes along and proposes to her. It is imperative to say that even if the woman has been kept waiting for the man for a long time to come for her; she can be dangerous as she has the power. This can be seen where Dickinson uses the words a â€Å"Loaded Gun† which means that the gun is dangerous. This is the power endowed to a woman even when she keeps still and allows herself be used as a tool by men, she can defend herself. Emily Dickinson stresses the power women have by using a metaphor. The first line of the poem â€Å"My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun† is used metaphorically in this poem. This is done by comparing her life with that of a loaded gun indirectly. She uses this metaphor in order to deliver an impression to the readers, of the dangers which are presented by a loaded gun. Since it is well known that a loaded gun is very dangerous and is often used as a symbol of power and command, then she depicts the same amount of power to women. Emily Dickinson has also presented the futility of a woman’s power when she is not with a man. This is seen when the poet says that although she has been loaded, she has been waiting at the corner, this shows that there is nothing the poet could have done prior to the arrival of the husband who is presented as the