Hope, is the thing with feathers-By Emily Dickinson English Poem Standard 9th

‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers –

- By Emily Dickinson

English Poem, Standard 9th

‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all –

Understanding the Stanza-

      

             Emily Dickinson, the poetess, uses the metaphor and says that the hope is a bird with feather and it always sits or roosts there in the soul of every person. It is always there and it sings a tune like a bird. This goes on there forever. This is the literal meaning of the lines.

             The poetess wants to give the message that the person shouldn’t be afraid of the difficulties in his life, because there is hope in each and every soul.  And it sings the tunes which always inspires the person to face the trouble. And this inspiration or the spur is endless it never stops it is forever there in the soul.

That hope is having soft feathers but these soft feathers can take a strong flight in tough situations.

  

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm –

Understanding the Stanza- 

      This bird (hope) is always singing the sweet tunes even when the Gale, means a very strong wind, is going on. Not only this strong wind but the stormy and destroying winds cant suppress the voice of this bird. That voice has taken away from many troubles to the land of happiness and peace.

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -

Yet - never - in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me.

Understanding the Stanza- 

     The poetess says that or thinks that the little bird has stood firm in the chilliest land or the strangest sea  - means in the most difficult situation. Whatever and however hard and extreme situations may be the there, but hope stays there with the poetess and with every person in the world, without any expectation (hope doesn’t expect anything) from me (the poetess) or from anyone.

       The poetess, Emily Dickinson, uses the pronoun ‘I’ in the first line of this poem. This connects this directly to the life of the poetess.

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