"Hope" is the thing with feathers

"Hope" is the thing with feathers: analysis

Introduction

In this short poem, Emily Dickinson defines hope through one extended image: a small bird that lives inside the soul. The bird sings a tune without words, and it never stops. Its song is sweetest in a gale, and only a severe storm could silence it.

In the last stanza the speaker turns to personal experience. The speaker has heard the bird in the coldest land and on the strangest sea. Yet it has never asked for anything in return, not even a crumb. The poem's interest lies in the tension between the bird's smallness and its endurance. It also lies in the closing lines, which can be read as gratitude or as something more uneasy.

Summary

The first stanza opens with a definition. Hope, set in quotation marks, is called "the thing with feathers". This feathered thing "perches in the soul", as a bird perches on a branch. It "sings the tune without the words". The stanza ends by saying that it "never stops -- at all --".

The second stanza places the bird in bad weather. Its song is heard as "sweetest -- in the Gale --". The speaker says the storm would have to be "sore" indeed to "abash the little Bird". This is the first time the poem names the thing with feathers as a bird. The stanza closes by noting that this bird "kept so many warm".

The third stanza moves from general statement to the speaker's own experience. The speaker says, "I've heard it in the chillest land --". The bird has also been heard "on the strangest Sea". The last two lines turn on the word "Yet". Even "in Extremity", the bird has never "asked a crumb -- of Me."

Themes and meaning

The first theme is hope as a living presence. The poem makes hope a creature rather than a feeling the self produces. It "perches", it "sings" and it "never stops". Read this way, hope acts on its own, and the soul only hosts it.

A second theme is the pairing of fragility and endurance. The poem insists the bird is small, "the little Bird" that asks for no more than "a crumb". Yet only a storm that is "sore" indeed could "abash" it. Because the song is "sweetest -- in the Gale", hope is felt most strongly when conditions are worst.

A third theme is hope as a song without words. Hope "sings the tune without the words", so it has no stated content. It promises no particular outcome and argues no case. The poem gives hope words only by comparing it to something that has none.

The last theme is gift and cost. The bird "kept so many warm", so hope serves many people, not only the speaker. Its never having "asked a crumb -- of Me" can be read as praise of a gift freely given. It can also be read as an admission that the speaker never gave anything back, and the word "Yet" leaves both readings open.

Tone

The opening tone is calm and certain. The poem starts like a definition, with is doing the work of a dictionary. The claims are absolute. Hope "never stops -- at all --", and only a "sore" storm could silence it.

The second stanza adds warmth and tenderness. The phrase "the little Bird" is affectionate. The line "kept so many warm" sounds grateful on behalf of many people.

The third stanza becomes personal and quieter. The speaker offers testimony with "I've heard it". The superlatives "chillest" and "strangest" recall hard experience without complaint.

The last two lines slow down with commas and a dash. They can be read as wonder at a gift that costs nothing. They can also be read as faintly rueful, as if the speaker notices a debt never paid. The poem does not settle which.

Form and structure

The poem has 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Syllable counts range from 6 to 8. Every even line has six syllables. Most odd lines have eight, while lines one and nine have seven.

This is close to common metre, the alternation of iambic tetrameter and trimeter used in hymns. The metre is fairly regular. Line 1 is the clearest exception, opening on a stressed "Hope" and ending on the soft second syllable of "feathers".

The rhyme is loose, and the first stanza has no full rhymes. The second rhymes "heard" with "Bird" and "storm" with "warm". The third rhymes only "Sea" with Me.

Dashes break most lines into short units. Capitals mark words such as "Gale", "Bird" and "Extremity". Both features slow the reading and single out key words.

Poetic devices

metaphor line 1

the thing with feathers Hope is compared to a bird without the word bird being used. The vague "thing" makes the reader supply the creature. The bird is only named outright in line 7.

extended metaphor line 2

That perches in the soul The verb carries the bird image inward. The soul becomes a branch or perch. The metaphor then runs through the whole poem, to the crumb in the last line.

paradox line 3

And sings the tune without the words A song without words is still a song. The line suggests hope has no stated content yet still communicates.

caesura line 4

And never stops -- at all -- The dashes break the line and then extend it past its end. The trailing dash enacts the claim that the song never stops.

juxtaposition line 5

And sweetest -- in the Gale -- is heard Sweetness is placed inside a gale. The dashes set the storm in the middle of the sentence, surrounded by the song.

inversion line 6

And sore must be the storm The word order puts "sore" first for emphasis. The alliteration of the s sounds ties the severity to the storm.

enjambment line 7

That could abash the little Bird The line runs on into line 8 without punctuation. The sentence carries straight from the threat to the bird's kindness.

rhyme line 8

That kept so many warm "warm" rhymes with "storm" in line 6. The rhyme sets warmth directly against the cold force that threatens it.

imagery line 9

I've heard it in the chillest land The superlative "chillest" names the harshest cold. It turns the storm of stanza two into a whole landscape of hardship.

alliteration line 10

And on the strangest Sea The repeated s sound links "strangest" and "Sea". The phrase adds the unfamiliar to the cold of the previous line.

understatement line 12

It asked a crumb -- of Me. A crumb is the smallest thing one could feed a bird. The dash isolates "of Me" and puts the weight of the poem on the speaker.

Words worth knowing

sore

Here 'severe' or 'grievous', not 'painful to the touch'. The storm would have to be a very bad one.

abash

'To shame or disconcert', to make someone lose composure. Here it means to silence or daunt the bird.

Gale

A very strong wind.

chillest

An unusual superlative of 'chill', meaning 'coldest'.

Extremity

'The utmost point of danger, need or hardship', not a hand or foot.

Context

The archive's records list this poem as number 254 in Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. That book was published in 1955. Dickinson's dates are 1830–1886.

What readers have said

• Antoinette, studying the poem for the Irish Leaving Cert, sensed an underlying sadness in it, pointing to the punctuation of the last lines, the negative "never" and the word "Yet", though her teacher disagreed. Antoinette, 2005
• The commenter orla answered that hope here is both fragile and indomitable, a paradox shown in the storm lines, and that the dashes suggest a continuing state of mind rather than a passing high point. orla, 2005
• Courtney read the chill land and strange sea as hope surviving terrible circumstances, and the last two lines as saying hope survives even without a person's help. Courtney, 2008
• Alex M. took the poem's point to be that people take hope for granted, though it keeps them going and never asks anything of them. Alex M., 2005
• Allison read the tune without words as a sign that hope is personal, with each person's sense of hope unlike anyone else's. Allison, 2008
• Tamara associated the poem with her mother, who died of cancer, and read it at the eulogy because it captured a person who lived to help others be brave. Tamara, 2004