Hope By Emily Dickinson Rhetorical Devices

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.

Despair is a commonality among all people. It is doubtful that anybody has felt the absence of despair for their entire lives. Despair is a perfectly human feeling though, and it must be felt some time or another. Emily Dickinson’s works provide a sense of despair and depression, painting a morbid picture of the world through illustrating our inability to fulfill our desires, loss of sanity, Death, and grim subject matter of her poetry. It is no wonder that many feel she is a “Despair” author, writing predominantly depressing poetry.

Dickinson’s use of form adds to the uncertainty nature of her poems and the indeterminacy of the overall theme, but also provides a window as to her honest thoughts. Because Dickinson’s poems weren’t titled, they were given numbers instead. They were also referred by the first line of the poem. For example, poem 620 (435) could also be called “Much Madness is divinest Sense –”. It’s unclear as to the reason why she didn’t title her work, but it’s quite possible that she never titled any of them because she never intended to publish them. Out of all the works she did publish, she did them anonymously (Franklin 1) and she named them, but she didn’t name any of the poems that she hid away. As a result, Dickinson’s poems could be perceived as her

Poetry has many factors that go into it that help convey the theme and deeper meaning. Some poets like to use capitalization to emphasize what is important, some like to use figurative language, and some like to use characterization. Poetry is a boundless writing tool for self-expression which is why it is important to understand and identify how poets express the theme. One of the most famous poets is Emily Dickinson, she was extremely recluse, intelligent, and wrote some of the best poems known to man. To be able to analyze poetry and connect the bigger meaning behind the words written is to go into some of the greatest minds. When Emily Dickinson died people tried to alter her poems which took the deeper meaning away from them. One of the ways she likes to convey meaning is by using figurative language. Two poems by Dickinson is “I Felt a Funeral in my Brain” and “If You were Coming in the Fall”. “I Felt a Funeral in my Brain” is about depression and what it is like to have a mental breakdown while “If You were Coming in the Fall” is about the yearning of wanting a loved one to return. Although the theme of these two poems are not similar, the way the theme is being expressed is. In comparison of Emily Dickinson’s “I Felt a Funeral in my Brain” and “If You were Coming in the Fall,” she uses simile, imagery, and allusion to get the theme of each poem known.

Many authors are afraid to express their personal feelings on such a topic as death. Being a touchy subject, the fear of losing an audience comes into question. Such a theme isn’t an issue for Emily Dickinson however, writing meaningful poems and does it in an extraordinary way with describing the sensitive matter of death while still being able to control the reader’s emotions such as that in "Because I could not stop for death" and” I heard a fly buzz- when I died". Sharing the common rhythm about death, but differ in tone and mood towards the subject. Her use of metaphors and setting descriptions are expressively throughout these poems, giving the audience a more emotional toile from each of these.

Dickinson shows an illustration in line two “hope perches in the soul”. This line Dickinson is giving personification to a bird perching on a branch in a birdcage to hope always resting in the soul. For that reason, hope is always within us, it’s always resting, waiting for us in case we need it. The bird in this poem is not actually a bird though, in reality it is a person. This person could be someone who’s struggling with something, and not knowing that inside, they have a place in their soul in which hope hangs on, and is waiting for them.

All three poems had their unique features, but I preferred “Hope #314.”. One of the reasons why Emily Dickinson’s poem grasped my attention was because of the figurative language she used. “ And sweetest in the Gale is heard; And sore must be the storm That could abash the little Bird That kept so many warm,” is my favorite stanza. This stanza represents how all of us can still have hope regardless of our own storms. Our own storms may get terrible at one point of life, but we’ll always be able to count with hope since it’s infinite. The bird is a symbol of hope which was the main idea of the poem. “ A Dream Deferred,” by Langston Hughes, provided several rhetorical questions, “ Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over-- like

I think the meaning of the poem is that hope is something that is always around but it is something we usually don’t notice. Like a bird singing on a branch. It also says that even through a bad storm the bird will still keep singing. Which means that not matter how bad things get hope will still be there. Lastly it says that it has been in the chillest land and on the strangest sea and yet never asked a crumb of me. Which means that through everything hope does not require anything and is strong enough to get us through our

There is also a lot of light imagery with words like “bright” (line 3), “lightning” (line 5), and “dazzle” (line 7). Through these words Dickinson compares the positives and

It’s best described when he says, “…His happy good-night air some blessed Hope, whereof he knew and I was unaware.” (Lines 31-32) Right here it shows you that this bird sings a song in the gloom and it’s beautiful. He realizes that no matter the bad times, there is always some hope for the future. He really decides to take an optimistic view on these rough

Emily Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830 in the community of Amherst, Massachusetts. She was the second daughter of Edward and Emily Norcross Dickinson. Emily, her brother Austin, and her sister Lavinia were brought up and nurtured in a quiet reserved household headed by their father Edward. Throughout her life, her mother was not always around, or "accessible," a fact that is said to have caused Emily’s eccentricity. They were raised in Puritanical Massachusetts, where they were expected to take on their fathers beliefs and values.

Emily Dickinson’s writing reflects the Realistic period through personal themes: death, isolation, God, marriage, women in society, and love. Dickinson’s writing is affected by numerous factors. Among these are her family, the Realism period, and her life experiences. Emily Dickinson herself was a sort of mystery.

This personification is saying that hope is flown away as if it had a choice. Figurative imagery works with other poetic devices to make the overall effect of this poem splendid by allowing readers to deepen their thinking to truly comprehend what the author is trying to say and to emphasize the influential parts of the poem, which the author wants embedded in a person’s mind.

Ms. Dickinson may have had a clairvoyance and comfort about death. She definitely has an inventiveness for such a morbid topic, which everyone will universally experience in their own unique way. According to Biography.com, Emily and her sister Lavinia cared for their ill mother until she passed away. Emily also died rather young at the age of 55 from kidney disease. She could possibly be talking about herself in this poem (Biography.com, 2017).

The speaker responds to the beauty of the nightingale’s song with a both “happiness” and “ache.” Though he seeks to fully identify with the bird — to “fade away into the forest dim” — he knows that his own human consciousness separates him from nature and precludes the kind of deathless happiness the nightingale enjoys.