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Hope by Emily Dickinson

Can you imagine life with out hope?

I think Emily Dickinson may have used hope a lot in her life and that’s why she wrote this wonderful poem, to inspire those without hope to give them a perspective from a beautiful bird that hope can change your life in any way you dream it.

I choose to analyze the famous poem “hope” by Emily Dickinson, Such an interesting and mysterious poet she lived her entire life in Amherst, Massachusetts, only two of her poems where published in her life time, she died in 1886, she was never married and live most of her life as a recluse.

In this poem Dickinson uses imagery and metaphors to describe, “hope is the thing with feathers.”

Stanza One

In the poem “hope” is the thing with feathers by Emily Dickinson, I love how Dickson compared the idea of hope as a bird or “feather” I think the feather symbolizes freedom as in with hope you can fly away and be free, it examines the ideas of hope as a free spirit. She uses an imaginary metaphor to describe why hope is the thing with feathers.

In the first line she uses a bird to create a clear image of a free spirit, a bird flying freely reaching what ever it wants, by using hope as a bird this metaphor is saying if you have hope you can fly to where ever it is you dream of. By giving hope feathers it gives the reader an idea or illusion of hope flying freely. By hope having feathers it is like a free home, flying to a new place.

In the second line that says “That perches in the soul” I believe she means the hope comes from the spirit, from very deep down in your heart. She is using another metaphor comparing a bird sitting on its perch, as our spirit is or where hope sits.

In the third line where Dickinson speaks of singing a tune without words, that never stops at all, I see the song as being hope, that the bird is continuously singing its praise of hope even without knowing the words or the meaning of the song,

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