Countering and Dickinson

After reading about what countering is I was able to better decipher Howe's scholarly analysis of Dickinson's work. I chose to read the countering chapter before the required reading from Howe's book today just for this purpose. Throughout the span of this course thus far, I have developed a liking for Harris's "Rewriting". After each chapter I read, I find myself developing more as a writer and scholarly thinker. Dickinson's poem "My Life had stood-a Loaded gun" really stood out to me after thinking about what countering is. For example, I payed special attention to how Dickinson used capitalized and un-capitalized letters to add emphasis to her writing. Finally, I thought that how Howe broke down all the possible meanings of the phrase "My Life" in the poem was creative and thought provoking. Initially I only assumed the phrase to be coinciding with Dickinson herself, but quickly learned that it could be many different things. This of course greatly changed the meanings of the remaining lines in the poem.