Looking At Dickinson

Dickinson’s poem “My Life Had Stood” is a very interesting poem as it can be taken in many directions interpretively. The two most striking interpretations, I found, are that of the author’s questioning God and the woman’s role in a relationship. With regards to religion, one can interpret this poem as a spiritual awakening. The narrator’s “life had stood a loaded gun in corners” until she is lifted up by a higher being and devotes her life in service to her. They walk together in the mountains, for example, which connotes a positive spiritual relationship. There is also a sense of dependency, as Dickinson does not “have the power to die” and serves her “Master.”
This dependency can also be on a husband or male spouse, which would tie into Dickinson’s thematic importance in many of her poems of male-female relationships. In this sense, Dickinson seems to be mocking the notion that a man is a woman’s saviour and that as such she must devote her life to him. She must stand by him as he sleeps, for example, and is “deadly foe” to his enemies. The casual rhythm of this poem, which shows a sort of complacency in the writer, suggests that this is a mockery of male dominance of relationships. Personally, I cannot see how Dickinson would be serious in suggesting that woman’s life amounts to service to her husband, as she is not the sort of woman who would fit that mould. As such, the male-female relationship interpretation of this poem can almost certainly be seen as a mockery. While the religion interpretation may also be facetious, - Dickinson questions the existence of a higher being in many of her poems – it is less likely to be an outright mockery than the male-female relationship interpretation as such a subject is more likely to be taken seriously.