My Life Had Stood - A Loaded Gun

Today I came across a short poem by Emily Dickinson. Reading it gave me pause to remember another Dickinson poem, one I first read in college and never forgot.

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 Sovereign 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
Upon the Valley glow -
It is as a Vesuvian face
Had let its 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--

For me this is the definitive Dickinson poem. It expresses all the passion, frustration, anger, desire, and melancholy that drove the great poet. The sensuous pleasure of a shared pillow is juxtaposed with the loneliness of being unnoticed until that fateful day the Owner claimed possession of the poet. The danger expressed is unmistakable; to this danger is added the unpredictable volatility of a  "Vesuvian face."

This poem more than any other, in my opinion, lends insight into the true soul of the outwardly sedate  and reclusive poet.