Emily Dickinson Hope
It is assumed by the reader that a bird is the embodiment of hope when Emily Dickinson states, "
that could abash the little bird," and because of this an important question to ask is why Dickinson chooses a bird to be the symbol of hope in her poem: "Hope' is the thing with feathers" (7). Each metaphor in Dickinson's work presents another physical aspect of birds that can be paralleled to the spiritual effects that hope has on a human being. These physical aspects include the ability to fly, the resilient ability to sing even through the stormiest of weather, and the inability of birds to communicate through words or other unambiguous interactions. The physical characteristics of birds metaphorically illustrate the difficulty experienced
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Dickinson's works were published largely posthumously, and her voice is heard in this final plea of the poem, asking hope to give her a chance. In addition, the Bird/ Hope, "that kept so many warm" with singing, never asks "a crumb" of the speaker. Hope never asks for anything in return; nor does the bird. The Bird/Hope is a selfless sort of creature, there to help in times of extremity, and never asking for anything in return. The reader is left with Hope not asking a question, which implies that Hope may have done so at some other time, that it could and does on some occasions ask for a metaphoric …show more content…
For example, the dash in the last line, after the word "crumb," causes the reader to pause, to add emphasis to the last two words; while the entire poem up until this point appears to describe the bird in the third person, the speaker is now introduced in the third person. This change in perspective suggests that the narrator has always known and understood the concept of hope, since the narrator is able to explain what it is, but has never had the experience of feeling hopeful him/herself. The dash could indicate that the Bird had asked a crumb of someone else, perhaps even that it would not stoop down to ask a crumb of the narrator, whose capital Me might then denote intense humility and defeat that she was not
Dickinson's works were published largely posthumously, and her voice is heard in this final plea of the poem, asking hope to give her a chance. In addition, the Bird/ Hope, "that kept so many warm" with singing, never asks "a crumb" of the speaker. Hope never asks for anything in return; nor does the bird. The Bird/Hope is a selfless sort of creature, there to help in times of extremity, and never asking for anything in return. The reader is left with Hope not asking a question, which implies that Hope may have done so at some other time, that it could and does on some occasions ask for a metaphoric …show more content…
For example, the dash in the last line, after the word "crumb," causes the reader to pause, to add emphasis to the last two words; while the entire poem up until this point appears to describe the bird in the third person, the speaker is now introduced in the third person. This change in perspective suggests that the narrator has always known and understood the concept of hope, since the narrator is able to explain what it is, but has never had the experience of feeling hopeful him/herself. The dash could indicate that the Bird had asked a crumb of someone else, perhaps even that it would not stoop down to ask a crumb of the narrator, whose capital Me might then denote intense humility and defeat that she was not