Diction In Emily Dickinson's Hope Is The Thing With Feathers

Kingsolver makes reference to Dickinson’s poem “Hope is the thing with feathers” through Adah. “When Miss Dickinson says, “Hope is the thing with feathers,” … I have pictured it many times—Hope!—wondering how I would catch such a thing one-handed, if it did come floating down to me from the sky,” (185). Kingsolver incorporating this poem into her novel adds insight into the thoughts and feelings of Adah, who is one of the most important characters. By adding this quote, Kingsolver helps correlate the symbolism in the poem to the text by showing that hope can be represented by a bird which can be delicate this can be compared to what some of the characters put their hope into.

Hope is a very powerful thing and the way you handle it can affect you in different ways. Everyone sees and feels hope differently but it is overall a beautiful thing. Throughout the novel Copper Sun by Sharon M. Draper, Amari tends to lose hope very often from herself and others but mostly regains it. The novel Copper Sun has a very similar theme to the poem, “Hope is the thing with feathers” because it captures the thought of losing all hope but being able to regain it and never letting go of it just like Copper Sun portrays. Amari is a hopeless soul when she is reminded that her life is not well, she has lost all contact of Besa, her family is all dead, and through her struggle to freedom.

The second stanza, that talks about "That perches in the soul," uses the imagery of a bird to explain hope. She believes hope perches in people's souls as the hope becomes the home for hope. The subject is viewed as a metaphor as hope rests in people souls the way a bird is known to rest on its own perch. In both the third and fourth stanza the poem talks about a bird singing the tune without any words and does not stop at all. Dickinson makes use of the imagery of continuous bird's songs to depict eternal hope as the bird does not stop singing the hope song. The fifth stanza, which states "And sweetest in the gale is heard", explains the song of hope by the bird as sweetest to the wind (Dickinson & Vendler

Dickinson uses similes and onomatopoeia to present the two opposing subjects in the poem. For example, lines two, three, and four of the first stanza contain a simile comparing the stillness of the room to the stillness between a storm. Within the first stanza, it says “The Stillness in the Room Was like the Stillness in the Air – Between the Heaves of Storm” (Dickinson). By comparing the room to the breaks between a storm, it creates in the poem a heavy and thick atmosphere, building tension as if something was about to happen. In contrast, the use of onomatopoeia in the poem interrupts the stillness of the room with a buzzing fly.

In contrast, instead of showing hope is important with a theme, the poem Hope koIs The Thing With Feathers explains to us what hope is and and how it can keep you pulling in the toughest fights in your life. In the poem, the author

Stanza one explains how Dickinson used the words to express about how it’s going to be a wild night. (maybe referring to partying) To have this night to shine to make it special almost like a treat. Saying “thee” Dickison might have been referring to people but she could have referred it to the wild night. She also used the word luxury in the context that means it probably doesn’t happen very often so it will most likely make it really special. Stanza two explains by the capitalization of her words. I really enjoyed really this stanza. It really stands out to me. The world “futile” it means pointless. “Heart” trying to highlight these words because this night should be wild and fun. It should be a free night, no specific plans just be a open

A famous poet named Emily Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830. She was well known for writing in quatrains and using slant rhyme in her poetry. Figurative language played a huge role in emphasizing the meaning of her poems, she also used dashes to highlight words. The poem “I heard a Fly buzz - when I died” mainly described her deathbed scene. She used imagery to describe how the room looked and how inaudible the room she occupied was, because she could hear a fly.

<br>Dickinson and Whitman also use similar poetic devices in "Hope is a Thing with Feathers" and "O Captain! My Captain!" Each poem contains an extended metaphor. In Dickinson 's poem, a bird clearly symbolizes hope. The first stanza introduces the bird metaphor: ‘Hope is the thing with feathers--/That perches in the soul. ' The next lines ‘And sings the tune without the words--/And never stops—at all— ' illustrate the interminable nature of the bird and hope. The second stanza expands the metaphor by saying ‘And sweetest—in the Gale—is heard—. ' The bird 's song, or hope, is the sweetest during a Gale, or troubled times. The first lines in the final stanza ‘I 've heard it in the chillest land--/ And on the strangest Sea ' describe the bird, or hope, as being everywhere. The last lines ‘Yet, never, in Extremity,/It asked a crumb—of Me ' show the unselfish nature of the bird; hope never asks for anything in return. "O Captain! My Captain!" contains a more complicated and cryptic extended metaphor. Basically, Abraham Lincoln captains the metaphorical ship of the United States through the Civil War. The second line ‘The ship has weather 'd every rack, the prize we sought is won ' means the United States survived the tribulation of the Civil War, and the citizens won the prize they sought, unity. Abraham Lincoln

Emily Dickinson’s “I’m Nobody! Who are you?” portrays her inner turmoil and pursuit of privacy to contribute to the poem’s theme of staying detached from society by using diction and symbols. Dickinson uses a form of  “regal diction” to drive her poem to sound elegant and smooth (Eberwein, Dickinson 100). Although her writing sounds lively, the connotations of her words bear a darker meaning. Dickinson’s use of phrases such as: “don’t tell,” and “how dreary” express a negative perception about living in the spotlight (Lines 4 and 5). Although Dickinson’s isolation was voluntary, she draws on the theme of privacy over exposure, to compel her readers that a private life has a greater appeal than a public one. Dickinson often compared her views

Much madness is divinest sense to a discerning eye.” Emily Dickinson’s great poem, “Much Madness is Divinest,” expresses the true rebellious persona that Dickinson was from within and the sense of frustration she had at being a very intelligent woman living during a time where men were the much dominant. The poet uses this poem to reflect the anger she felt (although she was said to be very reserved and quiet spoken) towards the society she lived in. When it came to putting down her feelings on paper, Dickinson did not hold back. In her work Dickinson utilizes the concept of slant rhyme, a wide ranged use of diction, and tone setting to give us her thoughts in concern to the society that she much resented.

*Reprinted by permission of the publisher and the Trustees of Amherst College from The Poems of Emily Dickinson, Thomas H. Johnson, ed. Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, copyright 1951,

Dickinson and Whitman also use similar poetic devices in "Hope is a Thing with Feathers” and “O Captain! My Captain!” Each poem contains an extended metaphor. In Dickinson’s poem, a bird clearly symbolizes hope. The first stanza introduces the bird metaphor: ‘Hope is the thing with feathers--/That perches in the soul.’ The next lines ‘And sings the tune without the words--/And never stops—at all—’ illustrate the interminable nature of the bird and hope. The second stanza expands the metaphor by saying ‘And sweetest—in the Gale—is heard—.’ The bird’s song, or hope, is the sweetest during a Gale, or troubled times. The first lines in the final stanza ‘I’ve heard it in the chillest land--/ And on the strangest Sea’ describe the bird, or hope, as being

In “Hope is the thing with feathers” the author characterizes hope as being caring and always being there when it's needed, which helps develop the theme of hope and perseverance. The following line, “And never stops at all”, helps characterize the bird in the poem as persevering. This piece of evidence shows that hope will always be there which characterization of caring. The line “That perches in soul”, gives the characterization of perseverance. This line is portraying the idea of hope always being with you, hence the line perching within you, or in your soul. The line “And sour must be the storm that could abash the little bird” characterizes hope as persevering. The line illustrates the bird as always being there even when times are tough. Even when one might think that there is no hope, hope will always be there. The quote “Yet never in extremity it asked a crumb-of me” characterize hope as being giving.The line shows how hope will never ask for anything in return and instead gives without expecting anything in return.

She uses a number of literary devices in the poem. One primary example of the figurative language that she uses is a the personifications do symbolism of hope. A symbol is an image that represents an abstraction. For example, a red rose may represent love, or a stone may represent hardheartedness. In “’Hope Is The Thing With Feathers,” the poet assigns hope the symbol of a ‘thing with feathers,’ more specifically a bird. Even though that, by the end of the poem, readers can definitely conclude that Dickinson used a metaphor by saying ‘hope is a bird,’ she does not make that clear until the very end. The metaphor began as only a “partial one: a ‘thing with feathers’ is not yet a bird, but some sort of object, not easily envisioned and defined only by the fact that it is feathered, that is, winged, capable of flight. It is a transient human experience, one that ‘perches’ in the soul but does not live there. It ‘sings the tune without the words,’ that is, a song in which rational, lexical meaning plays no role, while melody is all. Finally it ‘never stops at all’” (Leiter). The symbolism of saying that hope is a bird assists the reader in having a better understanding of how the virtue of human desire exists in side one’s soul, and is always singing – always alive – even when times get drastic. A bird is used to represent hope since “birds are often viewed as free and self-reliant, or as symbols of spirituality” (Rose and Ruby). The feathered fowl in this poem is “courageous and persevering, for it continues to share its song under even the most difficult conditions” (Rose and Ruby). Providing imagery of a bird also helps one to form connections as to what hope would act like if it were personified as said

She introduces the metaphor in the first two lines of the poem by saying, ““Hope” is the thing with feathers - / That perches in the soul -” and then builds the poem around the idea of a bird. When Dickinson says, “And sings the tune without the words- / And never stops - at all -” she shows that the hope doesn’t have to be sensible, and it never stops existing in one’s heart. In the last stanza she says, “I’ve heard it in the chillest land - / And on the strangest Sea -”. It is not a possible thing to hear the hope, but in this line she tries to say that that hope is everywhere. Even though the main idea of the poem is hope being in everyone’s heart, the metaphor of hope being a bird is actually what makes the poem more interesting for the