My Life Had Stood a Loaded Gun by Emily Dickinson

My Life Had Stood a Loaded Gun Reviews

• 
  Lovisa

  this kinda weird emo lesbian is so iconic!
• 
  Nigar Osmanlı

  i take it back. poetry isn’t obnoxious. turns out it’s a me thing apparently i can endure poetry only if it’s gay
• 
  Jo (The Book Geek)

  Well, there's certainly no denying it; I love Emily Dickinson. This gorgeous little book contains 52 pages of Dickinson in her glorious form. I read some of her poetry some time ago, and intended to get back to her much sooner than this, although, I think this has been exactly the right time to have done so.
  
  I often read that people don't understand Dickinson's poetry, and while I can appreciate that, I also think that her writing isn't always meant to be understood in a specific way. I think one should just let the words wash over you whilst remembering that this was Dickinson's portal for portraying her feelings. I for one think her work is stunning, and she has a wonderfully unique style that I really appreciate. To put it simply: Emily, you touch my soul.
  
  I've included two of my favourites here;
  
  
  "I felt a funeral in my brain,
  And mourners, to and fro,
  Kept treading, treading, till it seemed
  That sense was breaking through.
  
  And when they all were seated,
  A service like a drum
  Kept beating, beating, till I thought
  My mind was going numb.
  
  And then I heard them lift a box,
  And creak across my soul
  With those same boots of lead, again,
  Then space began to toll
  
  As all the heavens were a bell,
  And Being but an ear,
  And I and silence some strange race,
  Wrecked, solitary, here."
  
  
  
  
  "My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun -
  In Corners - till a Day
  The Owner passed - identified -
  And carried Me away -
  
  And now We roam in Sovreign Woods -
  And now We hunt the Doe -
  And every time I speak for Him
  The Mountains straight reply -
  
  And do I smile, such cordial light
  Opon the Valley glow -
  It is as a Vesuvian face
  Had let it’s pleasure through -
  
  And when at Night - Our good Day done -
  I guard My Master’s Head -
  ’Tis better than the Eider Duck’s
  Deep Pillow - to have shared -
  
  To foe of His - I’m deadly foe -
  None stir the second time -
  On whom I lay a Yellow Eye -
  Or an emphatic Thumb -
  
  Though I than He - may longer live
  He longer must - than I -
  For I have but the power to kill,
  Without - the power to die -"
• 
  Jackdaw ☄ Bronteroc

  I felt a funeral in my brain,
  And mourners, to and fro,
  Kept treading, treading, till it seemed
  That sense was breaking through.
  
  And when they all were seated,
  A service like a drum
  Kept beating, beating, till I thought
  My mind was going numb.
  
  And then I heard them lift a box,
  And creak across my soul
  With those same boots of lead, again,
  Then space began to toll
  
  As all the heavens were a bell,
  And Being but an ear,
  And I and silence some strange race,
  Wrecked, solitary, here.
  
  * And then a plank in reason, broke,
  And I dropped down, and down -
  And hit a world, at every plunge,
  And finished knowing - then -

  
  
  *Η τελ. στροφή δεν υπάρχει στο βιβλίο.
• 
  justmiaslife

  Instantly fell in love with Emily Dickinson now :3
• 
  Chesca (thecrownedpages)

  Matt Haig, author of The Humans, kept mentioning in some of his works the importance of reading Emily Dickinson's poems and so here I am! I am quite overwhelmed, I should say. I'm giving this collection a temporary rating of 3 stars because I think I would need to reread it to further understand the workings of her mind. Her poems are unique; so unlike any other I had ever read. I am very curious and looking forward to reading her other works.
• 
  m.

  this is the second emily dickinson collection i've read, and both had the same effect me: some poems absolutely fascinated me and made me go batshit insane, and some i simply didn't understand, which is fine! i'll keep reading more of her work though, because i'm obsessed with her.
• 
  Anya Smith

  I didn't understand some of these, but the gay vibes were strong
• 
  Anna

  Ich finde die Gedichte einfach super schön geschrieben und bin durch Dickinsons Schreibstil geflogen
• 
  Georgia (thefictionfolio)

  "I'm nobody! Who are you?
  Are you nobody, too?
  Then there's a pair of us -- don't tell!
  They'd banish us, you know."
• 
  Pallavi

  ****3.0****
  
  I was told that Emily Dickinson's poetry is a must to read by Matt Haig. In his book "The humans" he kept referring Ms Dickinson so much that I had added her poems to my Mental TBR. So when I got a chance I just grabbed the book.
  
  To be honest I did not understand her poems completely but some poems made sense and also made me think that I am reading it superficially. I need to read it again. Till then 3 stars.
  
  Happy Reading!!!!
• 
  Ash

  "A precious, mouldering pleasure 'tis
  To meet an antique book...
  
  He lived where dreams were born."
• 
  Mina

  "I felt a funeral in my brain,
  And mourners, to and fro,
  Kept treading, treading, till it seemed
  That sense was breaking through.
  
  And when they all were seated,
  A service like a drum
  Kept beating, beating, till I thought
  My mind was going numb.
  
  And then I heard them lift a box,
  And creak across my soul
  With those same boots of lead, again,
  Then space began to toll
  
  As all the heavens were a bell,
  And Being but an ear,
  And I and silence some strange race,
  Wrecked, solitary, here."
• 
  Hafsa | حفصہ

  READ&DATHON 2019: Races: Halfling - Read a book that’s under 200 pages.
  
  

  "I felt a funeral in my brain,
  And mourners, to and fro,
  Kept treading, treading, till it seemed
  That sense was breaking through."
  
  And when they all were seated,
  A service like a drum
  Kept beating, beating, till I thought
  My mind was going numb.
  
  And then I heard them lift a box,
  And creak across my soul
  With those same boots of lead, again,
  Then space began to toll
  
  As all the heavens were a bell,
  And Being but an ear,
  And I and silence some strange race,
  Wrecked, solitary, here."

  ~I felt a funeral in my brain
  
  Old poetry will always be food for my soul.
• 
  leah

  3.5 ⭐️
• 
  Kimiadhm

  This is the kind of book after reading which you’ll need to take a moment and catch your breath.
  
  Emily Dickinson has done a marvelous job molding all these subjects that seemed fascinating to her into a beautiful collection of poems.
  
  And the themes. Dear lord does the list go on.
  From “death” and “the question of God’s existence” to “depression” and possibly “anxiety” to her physical health and her one blind eye to “language”, “poetry” and “the process of creativity” and even to a riddle-like poem about trains!
  
  In one particular poem (my personal favourite), she talked about how a woman’s power is like a gun which stands in corners for its rightful owner to find and then use it. and when discovered, this gun will protect its owner at any cost.
  The metaphors in this poem (as well as the others) fit so well and at the same time were very much understandable for someone who’s new to poetry, such as myself.
  
  So to all of you who have been postponing poems for fear it might be too difficult:
  well, DON’T.
  
  I don’t want to imagine a life in which I didn’t read this collection because I was worried I might not understand its true meaning.
• 
  Ebony and Ivory

  The poetry is beautiful, I just found some of them hard to understand... Still I understand that this is the way the writer chose to portray her feelings and that poetry is not supposed to be read and done. You should ponder and study it a bit. But yeah, 4.5 stars
• 
  Neil Fulwood

  A Penguin Little Black Classics sampler containing 52 pages of Dickinson’s idiomatic verse. As seems to be the case with these LBC titles, the selection and arrangement are haphazard at best, but there’s no denying the unique, turbulent and often fragmentary quality of the poetry.
• 
  cass 𓍊𓋼𓍊

  (With a flower)
  All the letters I can write
  Are not fair as this,
  Syllables of velvet,
  Sentences of plush,
  Depths of ruby, undrained,
  Hid, lip, for thee —
  Play it were a humming bird
  And just sipped me!
  
  a lovely collection of poetry <3
• 
  Melissa

  I'd actually give this collection a 3.5. It's difficult to rate because while the poems that I liked, I 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 liked, some of the others went a bit over my head. I do like her writing style, though, and the way she picks her words. There are a couple of gems here, also a couple I didn't get but liked, and some that mostly left me puzzled. I'm rounding this up to 4 stars because that's what I do (◠‿・)—☆
• 
  Marjolein (UrlPhantomhive)

  Read all my reviews on
  http://urlphantomhive.booklikes.com
  
  The problem with the Little Black Classics is that because of their size, there is never any introduction to either author of work and you are immediately thrown at it. While this can sure be a blessing at times, other times this makes me feel lost and I want to understand the importance of Emily Dickinson's words, but in this way it all fell flat a little.
  
  Because, while the poems were nice enough (in style, in subject they were pretty dark and focusing on Death a lot), I felt I was missing the point and the meaning of most of them. As such, none really stood out.
  
  ~Little Black Classics #114~
• 
  Peter

  From the school of rhyming (tee tum tee tum tee tum) poetry comes...
  Nothing! there is no depth, no pleasure. It just never evoked the imagination. Now there are people who think this is grand poetry, good for them.
  
  All in all this is a good example of why I never liked poetry for many, many years.
• 
  leynes

  Yikes. I really wanted to love Emily Dickinson (and I am not giving up on her just now, don't worry) but this selection of her poetry didn't impress me at all. There was not one memorable line that 'got me'.
  
  Maybe I should explain how I consume poetry for this to make sense. Whenever I read poetry collections I don't have the expectation that every poem will woe me, heck, I already know that most poems won't. What I look for is one poem, sometimes even just one verse, that totally gets me. That I won't be able to forget. That I'll remember for a long time. That'll make me think, or make me appreciate how beautiful the English language is.
  
  And this simply didn't happen in any of the 50 poems in this collection. I also didn't click with her rhyme scheme. I always read poetry out loud (to myself) and try to vary my tone to get the atmosphere, but it was incredibly hard for me to recite her poetry. Words got jumbled, I didn't know which ones to stress, nothing made sense from a lyrical and acoustic point of view.
  
  Don't get me wrong, I am not laying the blame on Emily here. I'm pretty sure she's a terrific poet... she might just not be for me!
  
  But I thought I'd share my two favorite verses nonetheless:

  Because I could not stop for Death,
  He kindly stopped for me;
  The carriage held but just ourselves
  And immortality.
  
  /
  
  I felt a funeral in my brain,
  And mourners, to and fro,
  Kept treading, treading, till it seemed
  That sense was breaking through.
• 
  Bookish Tina

  Emily Dickinson is my poetry queen.
  Her poems are beautiful, inspiring, deep, meaningful, and so so much more.
  Every single detail in her poems is perfection.
  Especially "Because I could not stop for Death", highly recommend reading that.
  >>> Please read Emily Dickinson!
• 
  pantea

  i’m not sure i know how to rate this (so i won’t) — i really liked some of these, i couldn’t quite connect with others but ms dickinson has peaked my interest...
• 
  mia

  a rlly fckn good short collection of her work
• 
  Amruta

  “i felt a funeral in my brain”
• 
  Laia

  didn’t understand shit but loved reading it
• 
  Hestia Istiviani

  I read in Englsih but this review is written in Bahasa Indonesia
  
  Actual rating: 3.5/5
  
  

  A wounded deer leaps highest,
  I've heard the hunter tell;
  'Tis but they ecstasy of death,
  And then the brake is still.

  
  
  Sebuah oleh-oleh istimewa dari rekan sejawat. Awalnya sempat ragu apakah bisa membacanya mengingat kemampuan untuk memahami kosa kata bahasa Ingris klasik tidak begitu bagus. Rupa-rupanya, buku ini berisi kumpulan puisi dan hanya 52 halaman saja.
  
  Sering mendengar nama Emily Dickinson, tapi sayangnya belum tahu seperti apa karya-karyanya hingga mendapatkan satu eksemplar edisi Penguin Classic ini.
  
  Berisi puisi-puisi pilihan dimana Dickinson bercerita tentang kehidupan dan kematian. Namun, yang lebih mengena secara personal bagiku adalah setiap dia membahas kematian. Kata-katanya tidak memberikan kesan menakutkan, melainkan mendalam. Seperti halnya satu bait yang sudah aku kutip pada pembukaan resensi ini.
  
  Ketika Dickinson membahas kehidupan, ia juga menuliskannya dengan diksi-diksi yang memberikan kesan kuat. Bahwa sudah sepatutnya kehidupan djialankan dengan usaha keras dan tidak berhenti untuk bermimpi.
  
  

  Power is only pain,
  Stranded through discipline,
  Till weights will hang.
  Give balm to giants,
  And they'll wilt, like men.
  Give Himmaleh, --
  They'll carry him!

  
  
  Disamping tentang kematian dan kehidupan, tercantum juga prediksi Dickinson terhadap apa yang sebenarnya terjadi dengan manusia. Seperti ketika manusia berharap Tuhan memberikan keajaiban ketika dilanda kesusahan.
  
  Dan judul My life had stood a loaded gun merupakan salah satu puisi karya Dickinson yang mengisahkan perjuangan dalam hidup, sebagai perempuan di kala itu.
  
  Menarik untuk dibaca perlahan dan diresapi maknanya.
  
  

  Death is like the insect,
  Menacing the tree,
  Competent to kill it,
  But decoyed may be.
• 
  Tabea

  Ich mag ihre Gedichte die sind sehr gut geschrieben und auch die verschiedenen Themen sind sehr interessant. Ich werde wahrscheinlich mehr von Emily Dickinson lesen