Literary Analysis Essay of “Hope is a Thing with Feathers”
Emily Dickinson is regarded as having one of the strongest writing skills in American poetry. Most of her work focuses on the concept of personal struggle. In fact, many of her poem talks about her own struggles and sufferings and how she often questions God for it. In the same way, she also displays her love towards nature by incorporating it in many of her poems. One of her most well-known works which exemplifies her writing technique is the poem Hope is a Thing with Feathers.
Much like in many of her poems, Dickinson employed nature as one of her main vehicles to communicate her themes. In this poem, she uses a bird as a symbol of hope. In this case, she believes that hope is something that is inside her and just like a bird, it continues to fly within her. In the first stanza, she describes the abstract concept as a “thing” to provide the reader a more concrete idea of hope. Hence, she connects it with the imagery of bird “that perches in the soul” (Dickinson 118). She similarly painted images of hope as if it was something alive: “There, it sings wordlessly and without pause” (Dickinson 118). She continues by explaining to the readers that it is always there as it: “sings the tune without words/ and never stops at all” (Dickinson 118) By using such language, Dickinson created an image in the readers heads that hope is something alive and it is something that resides in all us. It is as if she wanted to tell the readers that while hope is something that we cannot see, one can feel it as his own heartbeat.
Within the second stanza, the author creates a form of opposition towards hope. She talks about a storm which makes it difficult for the bird to fly: “And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard/ And sore must be the storm/ that could abash the little bird/ that kept so many warm” (Dickinson 118). In this part of the poem, Dickinson is in fact talking about problems and difficulties brought about by life. Similar to every other people, she has her share of problems. Hence, she knows very well that everyone will at some point encounter a very hard and difficult phase in their lives. And during those times, one might feel as if hope, which is residing in a person’s heart, is dwindling fast and dying. In this stanza, the author reminds the readers that while there are storms or problems in life, hope is residing in all of us.
In the last stanza, Dickenson tells the readers about how hope is present even in the darkest or lowest place. She writes: “I’ve heard it in the chilliest land,/ And on the strangest sea;/ Yet, never in extremity./ It asked a crumb of me” (Dickinson 118). In this part of the poem, the author says that regardless whatever life throws at us, hope is still with us. She uses the idea of chilliest land or strangest sea, and relates it to the hardships of life. And yet despite all of these, she lets the readers know that hope is remains faithful.
To sum, Emily Dickinson’s Hope is a thing with feather, is poem displays the writing style of the author. In this case, she employs both nature and the theme of personal struggle an incorporated it in her work. In here, she uses the simple metaphor of a bird to describe how hope acts and works in human life. She similarly used the idea of storm to denote that hardship is but a normal part of life. And yet, one ca still count that hope, even in the lowest or saddest point in a person’s life, is still there.
Works Cited
Dickinson, E. Dickinson: Selected Poems. NY: Harvard University Press, 2010