Mrs. Henderson's English Class - Home



“Hope is the thing with feathers” by Emily Dickinson

Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,

And sings the tune without the words,

And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;

And sore must be the storm

That could abash the little bird

That kept so many warm.

I’ve heard it in the chillest land,

And on the strangest sea;

Yet, never, in extremity,

It asked a crumb of me.

As a quick review, a metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two objects, and it can be used to compare a symbol to what it represents.

Metaphors are often used in poetry in which one thing is pictured as if it were something else as we see in Dickinson's Hope.

Answer the following questions, citing textual evidence to support your answers!

1.  In the first stanza, Hope is being symbolized as what?  (Do NOT say a thing with feathers!)  Cite textual evidence to show how you know this.

2.  In the second stanza, Dickinson uses the metaphor of the storm to suggest what about Hope?  Again, cite textual evidence to support your answer.

 

3.  In the last stanza, Dickinson reveals her final message about Hope. What is this final message?

 

4.  In response to the question above, how does this last stanza reinforce the symbolism of Hope?  Cite the text to show you understand.

 

5.  Finally, based on your answers above, what is the theme or central idea of this poem?

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