"A wounded deer leaps highest" is a poem written by Emily Dickinson. The literal subject of the poem is the story of a wounded deer from a hunter, hence the title of the poem. The intended purpose of this poem is to send a message to the audience, a particular message about pain and suffering. Such claim comes from the use of vocabulary within the peom such as, "wounded deer" (1), "smitten rock" (5), and "trampled steel" (6) that suggest a form of injury and abuse. Congruent to the aforementioned evidence to the poem's purpose, the predominant atmosphere of the poem is omnious. Provided that the vocabulary used in the peom are about wounds, death, and anguish, the atmosphere of the poem is arguably one that of a darker mood. The author uses juxtaposition of metaphors to communicate the concept of a universal idea that all things react in a pretense of normality, even liveliness to pain and suffering. The first example of this metaphorical juxtaposition appears in the very first line, "A wounded deer leaps highest" (1), meaning that the deer seems to be in the best condition whilst it is hurt. Then it is explained that it is only a facade, "'T is but the ecstay of death, / And then the brake is still" representing the message of the author: the universal concept of false pretense. The "ecstasy of death" is the metaphor of the facade, and "brake" on the next line meaning the suffering, creating juxtaposition of the first stanza. The second stanza is where the author had portrayed the universality of the theme through her metaphorical use of inanimate elements such as rocks, steel, and a disease. The line "The smitten rock that gushes" seems to be a biblical allusion of Moses, when upon striking a rock, water gushed out to provide water for the Israelites. The rock in its "ecstasy of death" gushes out water, and water being a symbol for life, is a metaphorical paradox against the verb, "smitten", an action for physical harm. The next