Emily Dickinson's Hope is the Thing with Feathers: Poem Analysis
Emily Dickinson- “Hope is the thing with feathers”
During the time period of 1854- 1865 (before and after the civil war) Emily Dickinson wrote the poem ““Hope” is the thing with feathers” which revolved around the concept of life and transforming the image of hope in the readers mind. Throughout her illustrious life Emily Dickinson has made countless poems and all of them are based on one of these five concepts: Life, nature, love, time and eternity and the single hound. To inspire herself to write this poem Emily Dickinson uses her tragic experiences from before and during the civil war. After reading the poem the reader realizes that the poem is about hope resembling an animal with feathers and its interactions in the world. In this poem Emily Dickinson uses metaphors and flamboyant imagery to enhance the poem. The idea of hope resembling an animal helps change the reader perspective on hope.
With the use of metaphors throughout the poem Emily Dickinson is able to strengthen it’s meaning and bring out the transformation within it. The metaphors that Emily uses in the poem help the reader visualize hope as something more than just an emotion. In the first line of the poem Emily Dickinson writes “Hope is the thing with feathers”. This simple line creates a metaphor in which the reader can imagine hope as something with feathers and as something thats physical. Using this metaphor Emily Dickinson is able to transform the readers thought of hope being just a emotion into hope being something more than that. A few more lines into the poem Emily Dickinson writes “And sings the tunes without the words”. Using this line the poet is able to convey to her readers that hope is a bird; or something that has feathers, can sing and is free. The metaphors in this poem change the readers opinions of hope and allow them to see hope as a whole different thing.
During the time period of 1854- 1865 (before and after the civil war) Emily Dickinson wrote the poem ““Hope” is the thing with feathers” which revolved around the concept of life and transforming the image of hope in the readers mind. Throughout her illustrious life Emily Dickinson has made countless poems and all of them are based on one of these five concepts: Life, nature, love, time and eternity and the single hound. To inspire herself to write this poem Emily Dickinson uses her tragic experiences from before and during the civil war. After reading the poem the reader realizes that the poem is about hope resembling an animal with feathers and its interactions in the world. In this poem Emily Dickinson uses metaphors and flamboyant imagery to enhance the poem. The idea of hope resembling an animal helps change the reader perspective on hope.
With the use of metaphors throughout the poem Emily Dickinson is able to strengthen it’s meaning and bring out the transformation within it. The metaphors that Emily uses in the poem help the reader visualize hope as something more than just an emotion. In the first line of the poem Emily Dickinson writes “Hope is the thing with feathers”. This simple line creates a metaphor in which the reader can imagine hope as something with feathers and as something thats physical. Using this metaphor Emily Dickinson is able to transform the readers thought of hope being just a emotion into hope being something more than that. A few more lines into the poem Emily Dickinson writes “And sings the tunes without the words”. Using this line the poet is able to convey to her readers that hope is a bird; or something that has feathers, can sing and is free. The metaphors in this poem change the readers opinions of hope and allow them to see hope as a whole different thing.