Exploring the Text

1. Who is the speaker—the “Me” (l. 4)—in the poem? What are the pronoun referents in line 7, “I speak for Him”?

   Question

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   Exploring the Text: - Who is the speaker—the “Me” (l. 4)—in the poem? What are the pronoun referents in line 7, “I speak for Him”?
2. In stanza 2, why are the woods “Sovreign” (l. 5)?

   Question

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   Exploring the Text: - In stanza 2, why are the woods “Sovreign” (l. 5)?
3. How does the “cordial light” of the “smile” (l. 9) contrast with the “Vesuvian face” (l. 11)? What does Dickinson suggest through this juxtaposition?

   Question

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   Exploring the Text: - How does the “cordial light” of the “smile” (l. 9) contrast with the “Vesuvian face” (l. 11)? What does Dickinson suggest through this juxtaposition?
4. Why is it “better” to “guard My Master’s Head” than to lie sharing the “Eider-Duck’s / Deep Pillow” (ll. 14–16)?

   Question

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   Exploring the Text: - Why is it “better” to “guard My Master’s Head” than to lie sharing the “Eider-Duck’s / Deep Pillow” (ll. 14–16)?
5. Poet and feminist critic Adrienne Rich (1929–2010) has called this “a central poem in understanding Emily Dickinson, and ourselves, and the condition of the woman artist, particularly in the nineteenth century. It seems likely that the nineteenth-century woman poet, especially, felt the medium of poetry as dangerous… .[T]he poem grows out of her anger at the narrow life allowed to Dickinson by her society and by her father.” In what ways do you see this as a poem about the anger of an artist?

   Question

   ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=

   Exploring the Text: - Poet and feminist critic Adrienne Rich (1929–2010) has called this “a central poem in understanding Emily Dickinson, and ourselves, and the condition of the woman artist, particularly in the nineteenth century. It seems likely that the nineteenth-century woman poet, especially, felt the medium of poetry as dangerous… .[T]he poem grows out of her anger at the narrow life allowed to Dickinson by her society and by her father.” In what ways do you see this as a poem about the anger of an artist?
6. Another way to look at this poem is through a historical lens. Writing to refute a more symbolic interpretation of the poem, British poet Herbert Lomas reminds readers that the poem was written two years after the start of the Civil War, near the time of the Battle of Gettysburg (1863). He argues that the gun is literal, which, he claims, explains the final stanza: “The personified gun says it may well outlive its Master (in a gun-room and in the poem). Its Master, however, can and may well die in battle—but ‘must longer’ live than the gun: for the Owner/Master is an immortal soul, and killer of other immortal souls.” Explain why you agree or disagree with this interpretation. What other parts of the poem support or challenge this interpretation?

   Question

   ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=

   Exploring the Text: - Another way to look at this poem is through a historical lens. Writing to refute a more symbolic interpretation of the poem, British poet Herbert Lomas reminds readers that the poem was written two years after the start of the Civil War, near the time of the Battle of Gettysburg (1863). He argues that the gun is literal, which, he claims, explains the final stanza: “The personified gun says it may well outlive its Master (in a gun-room and in the poem). Its Master, however, can and may well die in battle—but ‘must longer’ live than the gun: for the Owner/Master is an immortal soul, and killer of other immortal souls.” Explain why you agree or disagree with this interpretation. What other parts of the poem support or challenge this interpretation?
7. The previous two questions explain interpretations by literary critics. How do you interpret this complicated poem? What resources of language does Dickinson employ to develop the meaning you see in the text?

   Question

   ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=

   Exploring the Text: - The previous two questions explain interpretations by literary critics. How do you interpret this complicated poem? What resources of language does Dickinson employ to develop the meaning you see in the text?