A Video for "'Hope' is a thing with feathers" (link if video doesn't load https://youtu.be/XkBJzfI8QHw)
Poem Analysis
“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul - And sings the tune without the words - And never stops - at all - And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard - And sore must be the storm - That could abash the little Bird That kept so many warm - I’ve heard it in the chillest land - And on the strangest Sea - Yet - never - in Extremity, It asked a crumb - of me. A Bird In Flight |
In her poem "Hope is the Thing with Feathers" Emily Dickinson uses a bird as a symbol for hope to help present the idea that hope is a fragile yet necessary thing. Emily Dickinson starts off her poem by describing how hope, “is the thing with feathers-/ That perches in the soul-/ And sings the tune” (1-3). By applying bird the traits of a bird, like singing, having feathers, and perching, which we associate with happiness, to hope Dickinson shows the lighter happier side of hope. Also by building this symbol now Dickinson can carry it out throughout the rest of her poem to help show her theme about hope. Dickinson continues this symbolic representation in her next stanza when she says, “Sore must be the storm - / That could abash the little Bird / That kept so many warm” (6-8). By showing the more fragile side of birds Dickinson shows that while many appreciate hope and need it in dark times it can still be destroyed. By showing that hope isn’t immortal Dickinson helps show that hope is a fragile being. In the final stanza the speaker describes how she has found hope in “the chillest land” and in “the strangest Sea” (12-13). Both birds and hope can be found nearly everywhere, this enforce the importance hope, if it can be found everywhere it must be needed. Overall, throughout this poem, Dickinson, uses a bird to symbolically represent hope to help show the necessity and frailness of hope.
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