I wrote this after reading a work by Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson is arguably one of the most remarkable poets in American literature. She was a genius and well knowledgeable in many fields. In a documentary about her, featured on April 13, 2004, on KMBH, writer Joyce Carole Oates claimed she was “metaphysical with her terminology … using them as metaphors in her poetry” (Personal interview). Poet Anthony Hecht, also featured on the documentary adds “her scientific knowledge gave her a sense of reality” (Persona interview). This was reflected in her writing. “The subjects of her poems, expressed in intimate, domestic figures of speech, include love and death, victory and failure, pain and ecstasy. Her poems reveal a passionate, witty woman and a scrupulous craftsman”(Britannica 4). Her poems often reflect a feminist perspective and are always strong in beliefs. Within all the 1,775 poems she composed throughout her lifetime a variety of themes are explored. “Religious ideas were so important to her, so much a part of her mind, that even when she was not explicitly writing about the existence of a benevolent God or the absence of God, she used religious imagery” (Gottsegen 532). There are also a significant number of poems about self-reliance, for she was a very conscientious individual. She was remarkably self-reliant compared to the period in time she lived in and other women around her, but absolutely dependant on her father for everything else. Her poem “Hope Is the Thing with Feathers” is about self-reliance. It tells us to stop depending on other people to find hope in because after all, we have the power to find hope within ourselves and on our own.Her poem “Hope is the thing with feathers” portrays hope like a bird and something supernatural everyone can find within. It is inviting to explore one’s personal hope status. The poem is almost like a test of character, as it has the answers to common doubts about hope. It also explores the inevitable fact that sometimes one is simply blind to see hope before one. Her composition of words in this poem gives encouragement to believe in ourselves when reaching for hope, serving as a reminder.
From the beginning of the poem, Dickinson describes hope’s abilities and faultlessness, making them appealing to the audience. With the first line, “Hope is the thing with feathers/ That perches in the soul,” Dickinson immediately personifies hope relating it to a living bird by giving it feathers and establishes a connection to the soul. The perching in the soul she writes about specifies where it takes place. It happens in the soul, within, and in a personal and domestic internal place. She paints hope spiritually as a bird with feathers to fly swiftly to an unlimited height, yet perching within, always returning, always in place within the soul. Her consistency of comparing hope to a bird continues throughout the entire the poem. Dickinson writes, “And sings the tune without the words/ And never stops at all.” Music is like the spirit because it is something we cannot see and requires another sense to feel it. The tune sung by hope has no words according to Dickinson; it does not have language and dialogue but instead carries an instinct that needs to be felt and that will remain constant.
The second stanza connects hope’s tune heard to tormenting times one may face. Dickinson adds, “And sweetest in the gale is heard:/ And sore must be the storm,” reminding the reader that hope can never die out despite the storm of problems and conflicts one might be dealing with. There is no storm strong enough to completely wipe out hope. If ever there is a moment where hope seems nowhere in sight, it is only because it has been put aside or left behind. And when the storm covers every bit of light, hope remains and that simple fact can be the loveliest reality in the midst of the storm. Dickinson continues, “That could abash the little bird/ That kept so many warm.” This is a reference to the storm in the previous line. The storm must be extremely strong to trouble the little bird that could once bring security and comfort, again reemphasizing that the security hope brings will never die, only be forgotten about. It remains alive within providing people with the strength necessary to endure and survive the trials and tribulations of life.
Dickinson describes the extremities for the circumstances in which hope can even be heard, “I’ve heard it in the chillest land/ And on the strangest sea.” This refers to cold and numbing atmospheres and even to distant, unfamiliar situations. Dickinson brings in a testimony tied in with an altered reality, giving her audience something to relate to and something to imagine towards the end. “In her poems, Dickinson tampered freely with syntax and liked to place a familiar word in an extraordinary context, shocking the reader to attention and discovery, and often self-awareness, as in her ‘fear to be a king,’ is not something to which the reader is prepared to encounter” (Britannica 2). This is similar to the way she ends the poem: “Yet, never, in extremity/ It asked a crumb of me.” Hope does not need anything in return, not even the smallest reward despite the extreme circumstances of life, which may destroy hope. Hope, then is ceaseless; it is always ready to provide spiritual nourishment and inspiration.
There exists, during everyone’s life, moments of despair, mental and physical exhaustion with emotional down time where hope is so hard to find, accept, and even keep. Most of Emily Dickinson’s poetry plays with a variety of emotions reflecting her thoughts and passions about life. Many of which introduce a new perspective and sometimes carry influence. “For Dickinson, hopeful expectation was always more satisfying than achieving a golden moment. Though her world was simple, it was also complex in its beauties and its terrors. Her lyric poems capture impressions of particular moments, scenes, or moods, and she characteristically focuses upon topics such as nature, love, immortality, death, faith, doubt, pain, and the self.” (American 3) Dickinson’s “Hope Is the Thing With Feathers” defines hope as a never-ending constant that will always live within everyone. In her poem, hope is something one must search for and be ready and willing to find and grasp. Disappointingly enough, a lot of people fail to remember this nurturing truth about hope. However, hope will always have a home within, so at any point in time, anyone can reach back and regain all hope.
