“Hope is the thing with feathers” Summary

“Hope is the thing with feathers” Themes

• 

  Hope

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Hope is the thing with feathers”

• Lines 1-2

  “Hope” is the thing with feathers -
  That perches in the soul -

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 3-4

  And sings the tune without the words -
  And never stops - at all -

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 5-8

  And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -
  And sore must be the storm -
  That could abash the little Bird
  That kept so many warm -

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-10

  I’ve heard it in the chillest land -
  And on the strangest Sea -

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 11-12

  Yet - never - in Extremity,
  It asked a crumb - of me.

  

  

  

  

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“Hope is the thing with feathers” Symbols

• 

  Birdsong

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“Hope is the thing with feathers” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Anaphora

  

  

  

  

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• Consonance

  

  

  

  

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• Extended Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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• Pathetic Fallacy

  

  

  

  

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• Polysyndeton

  

  

  

  

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• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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• Assonance

  

  

  

  

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“Hope is the thing with feathers” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Perches
• Gale
• Sore
• Abash
• Chillest
• Extremity
• Crumb

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Hope is the thing with feathers”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“Hope is the thing with feathers” Speaker

“Hope is the thing with feathers” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Hope is the thing with feathers”

More “Hope is the thing with feathers” Resources

• External Resources

  • Further Educational Resources — Resources for students about Emily Dickinson provided by the Dickinson museum (situated in her old house).

  • The Poem Out Loud — A reading of the poem by Mairin O'Hagan.

  • The Original Poem — An image of the poem in Dickinson's own handwriting.

  • Other Dickinson Poems — A link to numerous other Emily Dickinson poems.

  • More About the History of Hope — A BBC radio documentary in which experts discuss the concept of hope and its history.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Emily Dickinson

  • A Bird, came down the Walk

  • After great pain, a formal feeling comes –

  • A Light exists in Spring

  • A Murmur in the Trees—to note—

  • A narrow Fellow in the Grass

  • An awful Tempest mashed the air—

  • As imperceptibly as grief

  • A still—Volcano—Life—

  • A Word dropped careless on a Page

  • Because I could not stop for Death —

  • Before I got my eye put out

  • Fame is a fickle food

  • I cannot live with You –

  • I cautious, scanned my little life

  • I could bring You Jewels—had I a mind to—

  • I did not reach Thee

  • I died for Beauty—but was scarce

  • I dreaded that first Robin, so

  • I dwell in Possibility –

  • I felt a Funeral, in my Brain

  • If I can stop one heart from breaking

  • I had been hungry, all the Years

  • I have a Bird in spring

  • I heard a Fly buzz - when I died -

  • I like a look of Agony

  • I like to see it lap the Miles

  • I measure every Grief I meet

  • I’m Nobody! Who are you?

  • I started Early — Took my Dog —

  • I taste a liquor never brewed

  • It was not Death, for I stood up

  • I—Years—had been—from Home—

  • Like Rain it sounded till it curved

  • Much Madness is divinest Sense -

  • My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun

  • Nature is what we see

  • One need not be a Chamber — to be Haunted

  • Publication — is the Auction

  • Safe in their Alabaster Chambers

  • Shipwreck

  • Success is counted sweetest

  • Tell all the truth but tell it slant —

  • The Brain—is wider than the Sky—

  • The Bustle in a House

  • The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants

  • There came a Wind like a Bugle

  • There is no Frigate like a Book

  • There's a certain Slant of light

  • There's been a Death, in the Opposite House

  • The saddest noise, the sweetest noise

  • The Sky is low — the Clouds are mean

  • The Soul has bandaged moments

  • The Soul selects her own Society

  • The Wind – tapped like a tired Man –

  • They shut me up in Prose –

  • This is my letter to the world

  • This World is not Conclusion

  • 'Twas the old—road—through pain—

  • We grow accustomed to the Dark

  • What mystery pervades a well!

  • Whose cheek is this?

  • Wild nights - Wild nights!