I chose Emily Dickinson's poem "My Life Had Stood a Loaded Gun" to use as a class example because I knew that many students would already be familiar with Dickinson: would have read a number of her other poems, would know something about her life, and would have some idea of the themes and ideas which are usually discussed in her poetry. In addition, she is a woman writer who discusses issues of creativity and consciousness which interest me.

A major reason for picking this poem was that I had studied John Cody's freudian biography of Dickinson in David Bleich's biography seminar; I knew this interpretation well, and also knew some of its flaws. Additionally, I had read Gelpi's Jungian interpretation in Shakespeare's Sisters. I had met Gelpi and his wife at Stanford and admired them greatly for their work on Adrienne Rich. I also saw that the two essays provided a perfect comparison/contrast of Freudian and Jungian views. So, one day I went to the library and just started looking up whatever I could find on "My Life Had Stood." Mostly by shelf-reading (accident) I located the Anderson book; when I read his interpretation I immediately recognized how perfectly it copied New Critical models such as Cleanth Brooks' essay on Donne's "Canonization." Then I found the section in Madwoman. I don't know if this was before or after I'd spent a summer studying at Northwestern with Sandra Gilbert. She and Susan, of course, introduced me to a number of other interpretations which I am not using in class.

In addition, using Dickinson encourages familiarity with the Norton Anthology of Literature by Women, which I now use as a major reference source whenever I am doing research on a woman writers (It didn't exist when I began this project on Dickinson).

Gilbert and Gubar's bibliographic entry is a good first place to start Dickinson research as it lists definitive editions, describes available biographies, lists a selection of monographs, and recommends particular feminist studies.

Looking up poem title in the Explication Index, I found that Buckingham deals with 12 different interpretations of the poem, including two articles by Cody -- presumably the origin of his treatment of poem in his later book. WB's annotations are very sparse; most of space is taken up with listings of reviews. He himself does not evaluate sources. Looks to be of minimal value, unless I were trying to do an absolutely complete list of everything ever written with any relationship to the poem.
CUL: Z8230.5 .B8

Cited by Gilbert and Gubar, this did not show up in bibliographies list on LUIS. Must go back and do author check to see if in CUL. If it is not, I would probably order it on ILL. It is nine years more up to date than Buckingham. . . . Oh dear. Just looked at the books I'd checked out and realized that I have the Duchac. Found it by shelf-reading; was not properly catalogued in LUIS.

This book is EXTREMELY useful. Lists ED's poems in alphabetical order by title. (Slightly odd in that poems beginning with the word "the" are listed under T.) Each entry is then chronologically arranged. Annotations include brief quotes that characterize each reading of the poem; can tell very quickly what main point of each article is. Reading through annotations gives a mini-history of interpretations. Annotations seem accurate for articles I already know, so this gives me more faith in his judgement. Covers Cody, Gelpi, Rich.
CUL: PS1541 .Z5D8

Cited by G&G as definitive. Widely known to be so. Numbering system is one used by everyone. "My Life" is #754. Johnson edition also shows variant readings and cross-outs; places where editors disagree as to what Dickinson's handwriting really says or places where she crossed out one word and substituted another. In "My Life," for example, Dickinson originally wrote the word "art" in the next to last line -- "for I have but the art to kill" -- instead of "power".

Cited by G&G. This might be of interest because it may show where Dickinson bound the poem, what other poems she associated it with. Need to check CUL to see if we have it and if it is in.

Only two previous critics that G&G mention are Cody and Gelpi. I can't find in Madwoman, and don't remember if it's in print, but I heard Sandra say that she detests Cody's interpretation at the same time that she says anyone who works on this poem has to come to terms with it. On p. 610, she calls Gelpi's analysis of the poem "brilliant."

Miller, Cristanne. Emily Dickinson: A Poet's Grammar. Cambridge MA: Harvard UP, 1987.
Found this just by shelf reading. Section on "My Life" starts on p. 122; first note cites Robert Weisbach, Gelpi, and Gilbert and Gubar as analyses which helped her the most.

Staton, Shirley. Literary Theories in Praxis. Philadelphia: U of Pennsyl vania P, 1987.
Carl gave a xerox of Table of Contents to Tom who gave it to me. Someone else duplicated some of my research on "My Life." Interpretations which she chose are: Anderson, Gelpi, Gilbert and Gubar, and Rich.