Loaded Gun

Question 1

‘My Life had stood –a loaded Gun –/ in corners’
Conceit + Past perfect tenseCaesura + dash

‘identified’ + ‘carried me away’
Passive diction

‘And now we roam’ + ‘and now we hunt the Doe.’
Incl pn+ predatory verbs anaphora + switch to prestense

Answer 1

→life = ‘loaded gun’ + ‘had stood’ →sense latent potential languishing ‘in corners’→separate off female exp. from purpose/dignity

→speaker’s relief upon being ‘identified’ + sense ecstatic transport through masc. selection (‘carried me away’) / ED crit. fem. passivity, as if awaiting ‘selection’ or actualization through (masc) ‘Owner’

→Inc. ‘we’ + predatory verbs →speaking feminized gun feels part of + exults in masc. exp of hunting ‘the Doe,’ ironic b/c hunting doe represents patriarc. control over/possession of female exp.→gives jolt of immediacy to previously inactive exp.

Question 2

‘Every time I speak for Him / the Mountains straight reply’ ‘I smile’ + ‘Vesuvian face’ + ‘let its pleasure through’
Continuing conceitAdj ‘smiling’ + erotic simile

‘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 + hyperbolic simile

Answer 2

→speaker (mistakenly) assumes equal. w. mascowner b/c ‘speaks for him’ (ieshoots), creating echo thru (+ sense of dominion over) l’scape(‘straight reply’)→‘smiling’ gun = pleasure in discharging light upon the ‘valley glow,’ Pleasure by simile (Vesuvian face letting its pleasure through.’)→Despite speaker’s pleasure, reader detects that the gun/speaker is not truly autonomous (cannot fire itself) / also senses that agency is often achieved through violence in a patriarchal world

→speaker prefers self-denying work of ‘guarding’ than intimacy + equality of shared pillow→ED criticizes fem. identity which seeks self-actualization + equality (ironically) by becoming ancillary to their ‘Masters’: husbands, fathers, or to will of patriarchy in general