loaded gun Flashcards
‘My life has stood- a loaded gun-/ in corners’
launches the poem into its central Conceit and past prefect tense -> life= ‘loaded gun’ + ‘had stood’= sense of latent potential languishing ‘in corners’
difference between gun and ‘loaded gun’ suggests dormant capacity and seperate off female experience from purpose and identity
‘identified’ and ‘carried me away’
passive diction= speaker’s relief upon being ‘identified’ + sense of ecstatic transport through masculine selection (‘carried me away’) ED criticises feminine passivity, as if awaiting ‘selection’ or actualisation through mass ‘owner’
‘And now we roam’ + ‘and now we hunt the Doe’
Inclusive pronoun and predatory verbs + anaphora and past tense = speaker feminised gun feels part of + exults in masculine experience of hunting ‘the Doe’ ironic because doe represents control of possession of female experience
‘Every time I speak for him/ the mountains straight reply’
continuing the conceit because the speaker (mistaklenly) assumes equality with the masculine owner because ‘speaks for hum’ (ie shoots), creates echo through ( and sense of domination) over ‘scape’ (‘straight reply’)
‘I smile’ + ‘Versuvian face’ + ‘let its pleasure through’
‘smiling’ gun = pleasure in discharging light upon the ‘Vally glow’ pleasure increasing by the smile (Vesuvian face letting its pleasure through)
- despite the speaker’s pleasure, the reader detects the the gun/speaker is not truly autonomous (cannot fire itself) also senses that agency is often achieved through violence in a patriarchal world.
‘at night’ + ‘I guard my master’s head’ + ‘Tis better than the eider Duck’s’ ‘Deep pillow to have shared’
Connotations of ‘guard’ + erotic setting and hyperbolic simile = speaker prefers self denying work of ‘guarding’ than intimacy + equality of shared pillow. ED criticises femine identity which seeks self actualisation + equality (ironically) by becoming ancillary to their ‘masters’ : husbands, fathers, or to will of patriarchy in general.
