Question

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.

–“Hope is the thing with feathers,”
Emily Dickinson

Write three to four sentences in which you analyze Dickinson’s style in this poem. Be sure to discuss one or two specific elements that are characteristic of Dickinson’s poems, and explain their effects on this poem.

Answer 1

Sample Response: One way this poem reflects Dickinson's style is that it is written in the first person. This makes the poem feel personal. Also, as is typical of Dickinson, the poem is written in four-line stanzas with a rhythm and rhyme that sounds similar to a song.

Answer 2

Emily Dickinson is world renown among poets and those who love literature for her emphasis on both thought and feeling.

She is considered a master of form and syntax and is often called 'a poet of paradox'.

Generally speaking her poems tend to be short and they usually use only one voice (which is not necessarily that of the poet). She published well over 1800 poems of which only a handful of them were titled as is the case of the poem listed here.

Notice her use of form and paradox in referring to hope as a thing with feathers, something that never asks for anything in return.