Emily Dickinson’s “Hope” Analysis

Literature is an important part of the cultural life of any society at any time. It is used in order to reflect the experience and the most crucial issues of the life of people with the help of the word. It is the literature that is the main way for people to express their feelings and attitude towards the situation they live in. Every generation had an artist who stood out and created a piece of art that made him popular, with Emily Dickinson being one of the prominent artists among them. Thus, the main task of the given assignment is to evaluate poem “Hope” written by Emily Dickenson and disclose the main ideas and concepts expressed by the author.

To begin, Emily Dickinson is an American poetess of the XIX century. While alive, she published less than ten poems, while she wrote about 1,800 pieces of art, which is a rather amazing indicator. Dickinson’s poems did not have any equivalence in the then poetry. Her lines were short, titles were absent, and punctuation was unusual. A great part of her poems was about death and immortality; these themes were present in her letters to her friends. In other words, it can be said that Dickinson was the poetess of one spot (Lyall).

To continue, the phenomenon of calling abstract notions with concrete names is a standard thing for Dickinson. Thus, “Hope” is the most popular poem of those written by the poetess. Similar to others, it is full of bright metaphors and figurative language. For Dickinson, the hope is a bird that is called as “the thing of feathers”. The given bird is peculiar because it sings the songs “without the words”. In order to better analyze the poem, it is necessary to take a look at each of three stanzas.

So, the first stanza articulates the main idea of the poem. The author makes us believe that the hope has feathers and can sing. According to the poetess, these feathers are simultaneously gentle and strong. Thus, Dickinson wants to describe the notion that the strength in unity. This stanza serves as an introductory part to the main part trying to bring readers in the atmosphere necessary for the author.

Then, the second stanza promotes the idea expressed in the first one. From the first stanza, we know that the hope is always singing, while the second one states that these songs are the sweetest and the brightest ones. In this case, the author points out that it is the hope that is the main thing that helps people withstand various difficulties. To explain, the poetess emphasizes that the hope is the only positive aspect when people face chaos, serious problems, and mayhem.

In the end, the third stanza is peculiar because it introduces the personal pronoun “I”. This trick is used in order to personify the piece of art. With the help of this pronoun, Emily tries to show that she experienced quite cold and hard times, and it was the hope that was considered as the main assistant to survive. According to the author, the hope is said to be one of the most important things in the modern world.

To conclude, we can say that we have analyzed one of the most important poems written by Emily Dickinson. The main idea is to show that people do have something of the last resort that can inject hope even in the most difficult times. This poem can be considered as a certain appeal for the readers not to give up in despair in the face of various difficulties.

Works Cited

Lyall, Sarah. “Home Alone With the Ghost of Emily Dickinson.” The New York Times, 27 Apr. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/04/27/books/home-alone-with-the-ghost-of-emily-dickinson.html.