WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.930 align:middle line:84% Here, I'm going to read these poems 00:00:03.930 --> 00:00:07.570 align:middle line:90% and talk about them a bit. 00:00:07.570 --> 00:00:10.840 align:middle line:84% And I had to divide these into a few parts 00:00:10.840 --> 00:00:14.260 align:middle line:84% to get them up for a size you could see them well. 00:00:14.260 --> 00:00:20.140 align:middle line:90% And this is number 764. 00:00:20.140 --> 00:00:22.330 align:middle line:90% "My Life had stood-- 00:00:22.330 --> 00:00:25.510 align:middle line:90% a Loaded Gun-- in Corners-- 00:00:25.510 --> 00:00:27.940 align:middle line:90% till a Day The Owner passed-- 00:00:27.940 --> 00:00:32.000 align:middle line:84% identified-- and carried Me away-- 00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:34.400 align:middle line:84% And now We roam in Sovereign Woods. 00:00:34.400 --> 00:00:36.200 align:middle line:90% And now We hunt the Doe-- 00:00:36.200 --> 00:00:41.510 align:middle line:84% and every time I speak for Him, The Mountains straight reply-- 00:00:41.510 --> 00:00:46.160 align:middle line:84% And do I smile, such cordial light upon the Valley glow. 00:00:46.160 --> 00:00:52.120 align:middle line:84% It is as a Vesuvian face had let its pleasure through-- 00:00:52.120 --> 00:00:54.760 align:middle line:84% And when at night Our good Day done-- 00:00:54.760 --> 00:00:57.220 align:middle line:90% I guard My Master's Head-- 00:00:57.220 --> 00:01:00.400 align:middle line:84% 'Tis better than the Eider Duck's Deep Pillow-- 00:01:00.400 --> 00:01:02.140 align:middle line:90% to have shared-- 00:01:02.140 --> 00:01:03.400 align:middle line:90% To foe of His-- 00:01:03.400 --> 00:01:05.110 align:middle line:90% I'm deadly foe-- 00:01:05.110 --> 00:01:07.510 align:middle line:90% None stir the second time-- 00:01:07.510 --> 00:01:10.180 align:middle line:90% on whom I lay a Yellow Eye-- 00:01:10.180 --> 00:01:12.650 align:middle line:90% or an emphatic Thumb. 00:01:12.650 --> 00:01:14.900 align:middle line:90% Though I than He-- 00:01:14.900 --> 00:01:16.760 align:middle line:90% may longer live-- 00:01:16.760 --> 00:01:20.210 align:middle line:90% He longer must-- than I-- 00:01:20.210 --> 00:01:23.930 align:middle line:84% For I have but the power to kill, without-- 00:01:23.930 --> 00:01:28.200 align:middle line:90% the power to die--" 00:01:28.200 --> 00:01:30.600 align:middle line:84% This poet, like this poem, like many of hers 00:01:30.600 --> 00:01:33.060 align:middle line:84% was written during the Civil War-- 00:01:33.060 --> 00:01:35.970 align:middle line:84% the time when many guns, some not frequently used, 00:01:35.970 --> 00:01:37.950 align:middle line:84% were gathered up and taken into action-- 00:01:37.950 --> 00:01:41.810 align:middle line:84% a time of violence, a time of death. 00:01:41.810 --> 00:01:46.100 align:middle line:84% And that Dickinson, as female, could not die in the same way 00:01:46.100 --> 00:01:50.990 align:middle line:84% as soldiers were dying seems one thing at work here. 00:01:50.990 --> 00:01:52.460 align:middle line:90% There's much else. 00:01:52.460 --> 00:01:56.090 align:middle line:84% It should also be no secret that Dickinson-- this retiring, 00:01:56.090 --> 00:01:58.370 align:middle line:90% possibly shy, poetic soul-- 00:01:58.370 --> 00:02:01.400 align:middle line:84% knew skills that were never far away from the life 00:02:01.400 --> 00:02:03.410 align:middle line:90% in western Massachusetts. 00:02:03.410 --> 00:02:05.810 align:middle line:84% There wasn't too many years removed 00:02:05.810 --> 00:02:08.120 align:middle line:90% from being a sort of frontier-- 00:02:08.120 --> 00:02:08.630 align:middle line:90% i.e. 00:02:08.630 --> 00:02:11.060 align:middle line:84% she knew how to keep wood fires going, 00:02:11.060 --> 00:02:13.190 align:middle line:90% in the stove and outside. 00:02:13.190 --> 00:02:15.590 align:middle line:84% She knew how to find things in the forest that 00:02:15.590 --> 00:02:17.390 align:middle line:90% were helpful against sickness. 00:02:17.390 --> 00:02:19.400 align:middle line:84% She knew how to care for the sick. 00:02:19.400 --> 00:02:22.250 align:middle line:84% And she knew how to use a flintlock rifle. 00:02:22.250 --> 00:02:24.470 align:middle line:90% And no, I'm not making that up. 00:02:24.470 --> 00:02:26.240 align:middle line:84% But perhaps, the surprising thing 00:02:26.240 --> 00:02:28.220 align:middle line:84% about a poem whose overriding image 00:02:28.220 --> 00:02:31.610 align:middle line:84% is that of a gun, and a loaded gun, at that, 00:02:31.610 --> 00:02:33.050 align:middle line:90% is that it's a love poem. 00:02:33.050 --> 00:02:36.830 align:middle line:84% And that it is the female author herself who imagines herself 00:02:36.830 --> 00:02:41.270 align:middle line:84% as the gun, bending ordinary conceptions of gender-- 00:02:41.270 --> 00:02:44.750 align:middle line:84% perhaps particularly of 19th century gender. 00:02:44.750 --> 00:02:48.680 align:middle line:84% Here, the speaker is unused until the lover, my master, 00:02:48.680 --> 00:02:53.960 align:middle line:84% identifies her power, picks up the gun, and carries her away. 00:02:53.960 --> 00:02:56.570 align:middle line:84% And this poem is partly about being carried away 00:02:56.570 --> 00:02:59.330 align:middle line:84% in the sense love does that to a human being. 00:02:59.330 --> 00:03:02.630 align:middle line:84% But also, about protection and control. 00:03:02.630 --> 00:03:05.900 align:middle line:84% In being carried away the dance is free. 00:03:05.900 --> 00:03:08.210 align:middle line:84% Roaming the woods, hunting the doe, 00:03:08.210 --> 00:03:11.510 align:middle line:84% speaking with the rifle's blast, listening to the mountains 00:03:11.510 --> 00:03:12.620 align:middle line:90% echo. 00:03:12.620 --> 00:03:18.110 align:middle line:84% It shifts subtly, though, for here the actor and tool 00:03:18.110 --> 00:03:20.730 align:middle line:90% or subject and object shift. 00:03:20.730 --> 00:03:27.440 align:middle line:84% So while he gave her meaning it is she who speaks for him. 00:03:27.440 --> 00:03:32.140 align:middle line:84% And to her ecstasy the world lends echo. 00:03:32.140 --> 00:03:34.210 align:middle line:90% The mountains straight reply. 00:03:34.210 --> 00:03:37.460 align:middle line:90% And what, after the fireworks? 00:03:37.460 --> 00:03:40.180 align:middle line:84% Well, the valley, a common female image, 00:03:40.180 --> 00:03:43.390 align:middle line:84% glows with delight as if Vesuvius, 00:03:43.390 --> 00:03:46.930 align:middle line:84% the mountain, the male and phallic image, has erupted-- 00:03:46.930 --> 00:03:50.350 align:middle line:84% has, in fact, let its pleasure through. 00:03:50.350 --> 00:03:53.500 align:middle line:84% Afterward, the gun does duty as guard 00:03:53.500 --> 00:03:57.040 align:middle line:84% and honor an even deeper pleasure than sleep-- 00:03:57.040 --> 00:03:59.110 align:middle line:90% ready to kill a foe in a second. 00:03:59.110 --> 00:04:04.010 align:middle line:90% 00:04:04.010 --> 00:04:05.750 align:middle line:90% And deadly with the first shot-- 00:04:05.750 --> 00:04:10.550 align:middle line:84% jealous of any disturbance to his sleep, to their love, 00:04:10.550 --> 00:04:13.400 align:middle line:90% emphatic in action. 00:04:13.400 --> 00:04:15.500 align:middle line:84% It always aware that such experience, 00:04:15.500 --> 00:04:19.220 align:middle line:84% such momentary bliss is temporary, for he may go on, 00:04:19.220 --> 00:04:20.959 align:middle line:90% or he may die. 00:04:20.959 --> 00:04:26.540 align:middle line:84% While I am just here, able to protect and kill, 00:04:26.540 --> 00:04:33.490 align:middle line:84% but not, somehow, truly alive, not having the power to die. 00:04:33.490 --> 00:04:37.330 align:middle line:84% The ending is a little bit undetermined here. 00:04:37.330 --> 00:04:38.440 align:middle line:90% What does that mean? 00:04:38.440 --> 00:04:40.510 align:middle line:84% Not having the power to die after what 00:04:40.510 --> 00:04:42.460 align:middle line:90% this poem has been through? 00:04:42.460 --> 00:04:47.180 align:middle line:84% But I think this indeterminacy is perhaps necessary 00:04:47.180 --> 00:04:50.930 align:middle line:84% as one is finally not quite in control-- 00:04:50.930 --> 00:04:54.500 align:middle line:84% as the speaker of this poem, as the image in this poem 00:04:54.500 --> 00:04:57.200 align:middle line:84% is not quite in control, not quite as 00:04:57.200 --> 00:04:59.135 align:middle line:90% powerful as might be desired. 00:04:59.135 --> 00:05:02.790 align:middle line:90% 00:05:02.790 --> 00:05:08.170 align:middle line:84% Here, again, the interruptions, the dashes' function. 00:05:08.170 --> 00:05:13.500 align:middle line:84% So that one is fully relaxed in the experience, at first. 00:05:13.500 --> 00:05:18.090 align:middle line:84% But then one is totally on guard, fierce, impulsive, 00:05:18.090 --> 00:05:20.230 align:middle line:90% pulsing. 00:05:20.230 --> 00:05:24.570 align:middle line:84% And it's primarily in that second stanza-- 00:05:24.570 --> 00:05:27.300 align:middle line:84% one of the only ones that-- and actually, 00:05:27.300 --> 00:05:30.030 align:middle line:84% the second and third-- that aren't interrupted 00:05:30.030 --> 00:05:31.260 align:middle line:90% in the middle of lines. 00:05:31.260 --> 00:05:34.200 align:middle line:84% That you get kind of going with the flow, 00:05:34.200 --> 00:05:35.820 align:middle line:90% or going with the pleasure. 00:05:35.820 --> 00:05:38.910 align:middle line:84% And everywhere else you get a kind of tension, 00:05:38.910 --> 00:05:43.450 align:middle line:84% as seems right in this situation. 00:05:43.450 --> 00:05:45.360 align:middle line:84% There's no final rest in this poem 00:05:45.360 --> 00:05:48.300 align:middle line:84% and no absolute resting rhythm in Dickinson's work, 00:05:48.300 --> 00:05:50.030 align:middle line:90% in general. 00:05:50.030 --> 00:05:52.220 align:middle line:84% I call this a love poem in that it thrills 00:05:52.220 --> 00:05:55.370 align:middle line:84% as love does and forces us against a wall as love 00:05:55.370 --> 00:05:57.490 align:middle line:90% sometimes does.