Analysis Of Hope Is The Thing With Feathers

“Hope” is the thing with feathers-- Emily Dickinson wrote the poem “Hope” is the thing with feathers in the year 1861. This poem is an extended metaphor transforming the word hope she uses, into a bird that is inside of every human. Hope and the bird are both symbols for something greater. They transform with each other and bring the reader the idea of hope in many forms. The idea of the poem is to exhibit hope as an aspect inside of us all that is powerful and inspiring. I would like to first point out that the poem’s first line starts out with the same line as the title of the poem. Emily Dickinson wrote many poems during her time and she seemed to do that with a lot of them. The rhyme of the poem is in abcb form, meaning the second and fourth lines rhyme with one …show more content…
Another major noticeable aspect of the poem is the use of dashes in work. The dashes create an unusual syntax in the poem. There is a total of fifteen total dashes in the poem, including in the title. There are a total of three stanzas that make up this intriguing and thoughtful poem. The first stanza starts out with the title of the poem, leading into what makes up a bird. Dickinson states, “Hope is the thing with feathers—That perches in the soul—” (753). She starts out the poem putting a lot of attention on the word hope by capitalizing it and putting it into quotation marks. As mentioned earlier, “hope” is compared to a bird. Birds perch on trees and any other material that is horizontal in shape so they can stand on. “Hope” can “perch” itself in each individual as well giving the feeling of powerful inspiration in the human soul. The comparison of hope and birds is a great metaphor because it leads into other thoughts and metaphors as well. Feathers and strength can also be taken away from this first stanza. Multiple feathers make up a whole bird. All of those feathers are important for protection and flight, even though those feathers by