Close Reading of Hope is a thing with feathers
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all, The language present in Emily Dickinson’s poetry is at times unclear, sometimes ungrammatical and can be found to be disjunctive. Dickinson wrote in distinct brevity, irregular grammar, peculiar punctuation and hand picked diction. Her poems were written in a circular manner, where she took the reader to one place and them swept them back to the beginning always relating one metaphor to the next. Dickinson was an intimate person throughout her life, and her poems reflect that lifestyle. Like her poems, she was never quite figured out. Dickinson wrote not for the audience to understand but for her own self expression by writing down the words as they came to her, with little regard to the conventional syntax or diction. In this poem Dickinson coveys a metaphorical description of hope through simple language to explain a complex idea present in everyone’s life. Dickinson’s poem “Hope” was written in both simple syntax and diction, but backed up with a strong meaning. Though the word order and punctuation are somewhat strange, the actual words are easy to understand on their own. However, what makes them interesting is how they relate to one another and how they play an important factor to the overall theme of hope. Throughout the poem the words chosen are those we use everyday and made up of one or two syllables. The plain diction that is used throughout most of the poem shows the naturalness of hope. Yet Dickinson breaks this flow with the word ‘extremity’ to show the burdens that hope can help one overcome. While hope is a difficult idea to grasp, Dickinson uses a simple writing style to explain hope in a philosophical view through the exploration of hope through all types of landscapes, such as the chillest land and strangest sea. “Hope” takes the reader on a metaphorical journey through personifying hope into a bird. In the
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all, The language present in Emily Dickinson’s poetry is at times unclear, sometimes ungrammatical and can be found to be disjunctive. Dickinson wrote in distinct brevity, irregular grammar, peculiar punctuation and hand picked diction. Her poems were written in a circular manner, where she took the reader to one place and them swept them back to the beginning always relating one metaphor to the next. Dickinson was an intimate person throughout her life, and her poems reflect that lifestyle. Like her poems, she was never quite figured out. Dickinson wrote not for the audience to understand but for her own self expression by writing down the words as they came to her, with little regard to the conventional syntax or diction. In this poem Dickinson coveys a metaphorical description of hope through simple language to explain a complex idea present in everyone’s life. Dickinson’s poem “Hope” was written in both simple syntax and diction, but backed up with a strong meaning. Though the word order and punctuation are somewhat strange, the actual words are easy to understand on their own. However, what makes them interesting is how they relate to one another and how they play an important factor to the overall theme of hope. Throughout the poem the words chosen are those we use everyday and made up of one or two syllables. The plain diction that is used throughout most of the poem shows the naturalness of hope. Yet Dickinson breaks this flow with the word ‘extremity’ to show the burdens that hope can help one overcome. While hope is a difficult idea to grasp, Dickinson uses a simple writing style to explain hope in a philosophical view through the exploration of hope through all types of landscapes, such as the chillest land and strangest sea. “Hope” takes the reader on a metaphorical journey through personifying hope into a bird. In the