Reflections on Love Experience and Literary Career Themes of Dickinson's "My Life had stood a Loaded Gun"
"My Life had stood a Loaded Gun" is one of Emily Dickinson's most controversial poems.This paper,with a reference to the poet's life and writing experience,attempts an interpretation of the themes metaphorically suggested via a series of related images in the poem.It is pointed out that the central image "gun" functions as a metaphor of the poet's love experience and her literary career.The image implies not only her attitudes towards love and marriage but also her reflections on women's difficulty in their literary creations.In Dickinson's eyes,love means solitude and literary creation is a kind of "aesthetic sacrifice" that should resist material gains and worldly temptations.