hope is the thing with feathers essay questions

Hope Is The Thing With Feathers Questions & Answers

Hi Everyone!! This article will share Hope Is The Thing With Feathers Questions & Answers. This poem is written by Emily Dickinson. In my previous posts, I have shared the questions and answers of My Mother , The Further Vision and For God’s Sake Hold Thy Tongue so, you can check these posts as well.

Hope Is The Thing With Feathers Questions & Answers

Word galaxy.

• Gale – very strong wind
• Perches – alights
• Abash – make it keep quiet
• Sore – causing great pain
• Extremity – (here), it means the worst of the situations
• Chilliest land – (here), it means the most difficult circumstances

Question 1: Match the columns:

Question 2: Where does ‘hope’ reside?

Answer:  The poem is an extended metaphor and it personifies ‘hope’ as a bird. This little bird resides in human soul.

Question 3: Read the lines and answer the questions: And sings the tune without the words- And never stops-at all-

(a) if ‘hope’ is a bird, what do you think is the ‘tune’ that the bird sings.

Answer: Not only is hope a bird, but it can also sing melodious songs. It perches in the human soul and sings all the time. However, the song has no words or diction. It solely has a tune. But this time in itself is a pure feeling and a deep-seated longing that sprouts from the human soul.

(b) How does this ‘tune’ affect its listeners? Which line talks about how the bird makes people feel?

Answer: Hope keeps singing, relentlessly soothing the soul. It sings the sweetest when the going gets tough and the Game starts to Blow. When life gets difficult and obstacles are thrown our way, there is Hope, singing through the chaos and disorder. ‘That kept so warm’ is the line that talks about how the bird makes people feel.

(c) What is the speaker saying about ‘hope’ when she says that the bird never stops singing?

Answer: When the poet says that the bird never stops singing, she means that hope is omnipresent. It does not need a specific situation or time to make its presence felt. It rests in the human heart and springs to action when the going gets tough.

Question 4: When does the ‘tune’ sound more comforting than ever to its listeners? Why?

Answer: The tune of hope sounds more comforting than ever in times of difficulties when the Gale starts to blow. When life gets unbearable and newer challenges loom large, Hope soothes its listeners, singing through the chaos and mayhem.

Question 5: Is ‘hope’ hard to upset or disturb? Which lines tell us that?

Answer: Hope never gets upset or disturbed. The lines “yet, never, in Extremely, it asked a crumb-of me.” tell us this. The poet says that she has heard a bird during the hardest, coldest times when emotions are churning and life is difficult. But even when things are extreme, Hope is still there and never asks for anything. Hope can give us the strength to carry on in the most adverse of conditions. Its songs can be heard, even as the storm rages on.

Question 6: Which lines tell us that the speaker has found hope in the most desperate of circumstances?

Answer: The lines, “And sweetest- in the Gale – is heard- And sore must be the storm” tell us that the speaker has found hope in the most desperate of circumstances.

Question 7: What is the emotion expressed by the speaker in the last two line? Why?

Answer: The speaker has heard the bird sing during the hardest, coldest times when emotions are churning and life surreal. But even when things are extreme, hope is still there and never asks for anything. She says this to show the perpetuity of hope. Hope exists in the cruelest of time, never asking anyone for anything in return. So, these were Hope Is The Thing With Feathers Questions & Answers.

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Hope is the Thing with Feathers

By Emily Dickinson

‘Hope is the Thing with Feathers’ by Emily Dickinson is a poem about hope. It is depicted through the famous metaphor of a bird.

Emily Dickinson

Nationality: American

She penned nearly 1,800 poems, largely unpublished in her lifetime.

Key Poem Information

Central Message: Hope lives in everyone and is fragile

Speaker: Unknown

Poetic Form: Quatrain

Themes: Nature

Emotions Evoked: Hope

Time Period: 19th Century

This classic Emily Dickinson poem skillfully describes a feeling that should be indescribable— hope.

Emily Dickinson’s poem  ‘Hope is the Thing with Feathers’ is perceived to have been published circa 1891. It was published posthumously as Poems by Emily Dickinson  in her second collection by her sister.

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Throughout, ‘ Hope is the Thing with Feathers ,’ The narrator perceives hope as a bird that resides inside humans. It persists dutifully without a break, singing constantly.

Using metaphor , she emphasizes it sings vigorously during a hurricane, requiring a heavy storm to lay the bird in peace. As per the speaker , this bird never wavers by her side in the coldest of lands and strangest of seas, yet it never demanded a breadcrumb, singing away merrily.

Structure and Form

• Rhyme . The poem follows a loose rhyme scheme of ABCB , conforming to the expected pattern of a ballad . The lines break the pattern (in both stanza one and stanza two) but generally, the pattern remains intact.
• Rhythm . ‘Hope is the Thing with Feathers’ is written in ballad meter , a common meter. This means that the lines alternate between iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter . The odd-numbered lines contain a total of eight syllables. These are divided into sets of two, the first beat of which is unstressed and the second stressed. The even-numbered lines are written in iambic trimeter . This means, in regards to the metrical foot, that they follow the same pattern of stresses but contain only six syllables.

Literary Devices

Throughout this poem, the poet makes use of several literary devices. These include but are not limited to:

• Repetition : the poet uses ‘ that’ and ‘ and’ several times throughout ‘Hope is the Thing with Feathers’ .
• Enjambment : seen when the poet cuts off a line before its natural stopping point. For example, the transition between lines three and four of the second stanza.
• Metaphor : seen through the initial comparison between hope and a bird.
• Anaphora : the repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of multiple lines. For example, “And” which starts a total of five lines.

Analysis, Stanza by Stanza

“Hope” is the thing with feathers – That perches in the soul – And sings the tune without the words – And never stops – at all –

Emily Dickinson is an expert employer of metaphors , as she uses the small bird to convey her message, indicating that hope burns in the harshest of storms, coldest of winds, and in the unknown of seas for that matter, yet it never demands in return. It persists continuously within us, keeping us alive.

In the case of the first quatrain , the narrator feels that hope can be deemed as a bird with feathers, singing in its own tune merrily. It may not speak any specific language, yet it’s certainly present within human souls. Just as importantly, Emily Dickinson voices that hope is an eternal spring, as it’s a vital constituent of human beings, enabling us to conquer unchartered territories.

And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard – And sore must be the storm – That could abash the little Bird That kept so many warm –

In the case of the second stanza, the poetess elucidates the expansive power hope wields over us. It gets merrier and sweeter as the storm gets mightier and relentless. The poetess deems that no storm can sway hope and its adamant attitude . According to the poetess, it would take a deadly storm of astronomical proportions to flatten the bird of hope that has kept the ship sailing for most men.

Stanza Three

I’ve heard it in the chillest land – And on the strangest Sea – Yet – never – in Extremity, It asked a crumb – of me.

In the last stanza, or quatrain, Emily Dickinson concludes her poem by stressing that hope retains its clarity and tensile strength in the harshest of conditions, yet it never demands in return for its valiant services. Hope is inherently powerful and certainly needs no polishing, as it steers the ship from one storm to another with efficacy.

The metaphorical aspect of ‘Hope is the Thing with Feathers’  is an old practice, used by well-known poets, the small bird represents hope in this poem. When abstract concepts are under study such as death, love, and hope, they are often represented by an object from nature, in this case, the bird.

Historical Context

Dickinson was born in the same house that she eventually died in. The popular myth is that Dickinson was a literary hermit-genius. But, contemporary accounts of her life suggest that she was active in social circles and adored human interaction. Moreover, her travels were limited to her countryside and native town, as evidenced by her poetry which remains aloof from political connotations / commentary.

Lastly, Emily Dickinson hardly ever published her massive stock of 1800 poems. Only her sister stumbled upon the prolific collection and took the liberty to publish the massive literary work.

Whereas Walt Whitman adored and eulogized Lincoln as his political champion, Emily was known as the poet of inwardness. Reading her poetic collection can indicate almost zero evidence of the time she lived in.

Personal Commentary

‘Hope is the Thing with Feathers’ is a beautiful, metaphorically driven poem. Throughout, Dickinson uses the bird in her usual homiletic style , inspired by religious poems and Psalms. Hope, according to Emily Dickinson, is the sole abstract entity weathering storms after storms, bypassing hardships with eventual steadiness. It remains unabashed in the harshest of human conditions and circumstances, enabling a thicker skin.

‘Hope is the Thing with Feathers’ was one of the simplistic poems with a typified metaphorical connotation and device upon which rests the entire poem. Dickinson’s work, themes, and artistic flights of fancy took a wild turn during the 1860s. However, unlike her normative style, she uses the term ‘abashed’ to bring the casual reader into grounded reality.

Emily Dickinson had the unique trait of writing aphoristically; being able to compress lengthy detail into some words was her natural gift. As a result, at times, some of the poems can be taken at face value, yet, layers upon layers are peeled off on later readings. Certain verses can have dual meanings, but their underlying message is irrevocably clear.

Dickinson crafts this metaphor in order to describe the fleeting and beautiful nature of hope. It is at once beautiful and fragile, as a bird is. It “perches” in the soul, as if tentative.

She said that hope is beautiful, perches in the heart like a bird, and can outlast the most difficult conditions. It is also selfless. It has never asked her for anything despite its constant presence.

The metaphor is in the first lines and throughout the rest of the poem. The poet makes use of what is known as an extended metaphor . This means that it’s used in more than one line.

Its believed to have been written around 1861. But, it wasn’t published until 1891.

In the last stanza , Dickinson is emphasizing how hope maintains its strength no matter the adversity its met. She said that she has “heard it in the chillest land – / And on the strangest Sea” and that no matter where she’s met it, it hasn’t asked anything of her.

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Hope is the thing with feathers Summary & Analysis by Emily Dickinson

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis
• Poetic Devices
• Vocabulary & References
• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme
• Line-by-Line Explanations

"Hope is the thing with feathers" (written around 1861) is a popular poem by the American poet Emily Dickinson. In the poem, "Hope" is metaphorically transformed into a strong-willed bird that lives within the human soul—and sings its song no matter what. Essentially, the poem seeks to remind readers of the power of hope and how little it requires of people. The speaker makes it clear that hope has been helpful in times of difficulty and has never asked for anything in return. "Hope is the Thing with Feathers" is one of a number of poems by Dickinson that breathes new life into an abstract concept by using surprising imagery and figurative language.

• Read the full text of “Hope is the thing with feathers”

The Full Text of “Hope is the thing with feathers”

1 “Hope” is the thing with feathers -

2 That perches in the soul -

3 And sings the tune without the words -

4 And never stops - at all -

5 And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

6 And sore must be the storm -

7 That could abash the little Bird

8 That kept so many warm -

9 I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

10 And on the strangest Sea -

11 Yet - never - in Extremity,

12 It asked a crumb - of me.

“Hope is the thing with feathers” Summary

“hope is the thing with feathers” themes.

• See where this theme is active in the poem.

Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Hope is the thing with feathers”

“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 -

Lines 11-12

Yet - never - in Extremity, It asked a crumb - of me.

“Hope is the thing with feathers” Symbols

• See where this symbol appears in the poem.

“Hope is the thing with feathers” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

Extended Metaphor

Pathetic fallacy, polysyndeton, alliteration, “hope is the thing with feathers” vocabulary.

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• See where this vocabulary word appears in the poem.

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Hope is the thing with feathers”

Rhyme scheme, “hope is the thing with feathers” speaker, “hope is the thing with feathers” setting, literary and historical context of “hope is the thing with feathers”, more “hope is the thing with feathers” resources, external resources.

Further Educational Resources — Resources for students about Emily Dickinson provided by the Dickinson museum (situated in her old house).

The Poem Out Loud — A reading of the poem by Mairin O'Hagan.

The Original Poem — An image of the poem in Dickinson's own handwriting.

Other Dickinson Poems — A link to numerous other Emily Dickinson poems.

More About the History of Hope — A BBC radio documentary in which experts discuss the concept of hope and its history.

LitCharts on Other Poems by Emily Dickinson

A Bird, came down the Walk

After great pain, a formal feeling comes –

A Light exists in Spring

A Murmur in the Trees—to note—

A narrow Fellow in the Grass

An awful Tempest mashed the air—

As imperceptibly as grief

A still—Volcano—Life—

Because I could not stop for Death —

Before I got my eye put out

Fame is a fickle food

I cannot live with You –

I cautious, scanned my little life

I could bring You Jewels—had I a mind to—

I did not reach Thee

I died for Beauty—but was scarce

I dreaded that first Robin, so

I dwell in Possibility –

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain

If I can stop one heart from breaking

I had been hungry, all the Years

I have a Bird in spring

I heard a Fly buzz - when I died -

I like a look of Agony

I like to see it lap the Miles

I measure every Grief I meet

I’m Nobody! Who are you?

I started Early — Took my Dog —

I taste a liquor never brewed

It was not Death, for I stood up

I—Years—had been—from Home—

Like Rain it sounded till it curved

Much Madness is divinest Sense -

My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun

Nature is what we see

One need not be a Chamber — to be Haunted

Publication — is the Auction

Safe in their Alabaster Chambers

Success is counted sweetest

Tell all the truth but tell it slant —

The Brain—is wider than the Sky—

The Bustle in a House

The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants

There came a Wind like a Bugle

There is no Frigate like a Book

There's a certain Slant of light

There's been a Death, in the Opposite House

The saddest noise, the sweetest noise

The Sky is low — the Clouds are mean

The Soul has bandaged moments

The Soul selects her own Society

The Wind – tapped like a tired Man –

They shut me up in Prose –

This is my letter to the world

This World is not Conclusion

'Twas the old—road—through pain—

We grow accustomed to the Dark

What mystery pervades a well!

Whose cheek is this?

Wild nights - Wild nights!

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Hope is the thing with feathers Questions

Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer..

• Why do you think Dickinson chose a bird to represent hope?
• How important is the idea of suffering to this poem? Do you need it in order to have hope? How might the speaker answer that question?
• How convincing is this poem in your estimation? Do you take any comfort in it? Why or why not?
• How do this poem's rhyme and rhythm affect the way you read it?

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Hope is the Thing with Feathers

By emily dickinson, hope is the thing with feathers study guide.

Originally published in 1891, "'Hope' is the thing with feathers" is a poem by Emily Dickinson . In her lifetime, Dickinson was mostly known as something of recluse, rarely leaving her town or home. Her work was only published after her death in 1886, following the discovery of a large cache of her poems. Her writing made use of numerous stylistic idiosyncrasies including slant rhyme, frequent capitalization, and dashes.

At three stanzas long, the poem is rather short, but still manages to be full of emotional resonance. The speaker describes a songbird as the embodiment of hope. Initially, the speaker offers a depiction of its song, before going on to show it enduring the travails of a storm. In the end, the speaker mentions that, at various extremes, this little bird has completed many journeys, while never requiring anything from them. It is a work that is largely concerned with the durability of hope, even in the face of tribulation.

The poem features slant rhyme in the second and fourth lines of each of its stanzas. It also makes use of dashes, which create an embedded rhythm in various lines. On the whole, these stylistic elements add to the musicality of the poem. This is fitting, considering that it is a portrait of a bird whose song is heard in even the most dangerous weather and dire straits. As with many of Dickinson's poems, "'Hope' is the thing with feathers" is both mysteriously abstract and emotionally urgent.

Hope is the Thing with Feathers Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Hope is the Thing with Feathers is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

What is an example of when connotation was used to develop the theme

Best results for your answer

Hope is the thing with feathers by Emily dickinson

What does the writer want the reader to see, hear, taste, feel and smell?

I think the natural elements, oftemn extreme, are evocotave.

sweetest in the gale is heard; And sore must be the storm I've heard it in the chillest land, And on the strangest...

Chillest in Dickinson's day actually meant cold. It soulds like she means laid back as in "chill" in Hawaii but it means cold like in the Yukon so she is saying, I've heard in the coldest land.

Study Guide for Hope is the Thing with Feathers

Hope is the Thing with Feathers study guide contains a biography of Emily Dickinson, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Hope is the Thing with Feathers
• Hope is the Thing with Feathers Summary
• Character List

A Short Analysis of Emily Dickinson’s ‘Hope is the thing with feathers’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Only Emily Dickinson could open a poem with a line like ‘“Hope” is the thing with feathers’, a line which features in our pick of the best Emily Dickinson quotations . Poets before her had compared hope to a bird, but ‘thing with feathers’ was a peculiarly Dickinsonian touch. Here is this great little poem by Dickinson, along with a short analysis of it.

‘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’: summary

In summary, then: as with many of her poems, Emily Dickinson takes an abstract feeling or idea – in this case, hope – and likens it to something physical, visible, and tangible – here, a singing bird. Hope, for Dickinson, sings its wordless tune and never stops singing it: nothing can faze it.

In other words (as it were), hope does not communicate by ‘speaking’ to us in a conventional sense: it is a feeling that we get, not always a rational one, that cheers us even in dark times of despair.

Indeed, hope is sweetest of all when the ‘Gale’ is busy raging: during turbulent or troubled times, hope is there for us.

And hope can withstand just about anything: even in times of cold comfort (‘the chillest land’) or in foreign or unfamiliar climes (‘on the strangest Sea’), hope remains. And hope never asks for anything from us in return. It provides comfort and solace but does not require anything back.

‘“Hope” is the thing with feathers’: analysis

Note Dickinson’s ingenious use of the word ‘words’ in the first stanza, which, coming at the end of the third line, looks back to the first line for a rhyme but instead of finding ‘bird(s)’ finds, instead, ‘thing with feathers’:

‘Bird’ will be delayed until the second stanza, because Dickinson appears to want to reject any glib simile of ‘hope = singing bird’:

The analogy must instead unfold and develop gradually. There is no ‘ My heart is like a singing bird ‘ (to borrow from Dickinson’s contemporary, Christina Rossetti) here.

It’s always fascinating to study a poet’s linguistic fingerprint, and analyse the kinds of words (and word-formations) they like to use in their work. These details help to make their work what it is an provide its distinctiveness. As Vendler observes, ‘thing’ represents Dickinson’s ‘single largest mental category’, since it takes in everything from acts to creatures to concepts and occasions.

‘It is as though she begins each general enquiry’, Vendler notes, ‘with the general question, “What sort of thing is this?” and then goes on to categorize it more minutely’.

But there’s something counter-intuitive about a poet whose work is defined by its peculiar and sometimes idiosyncratic attention to detail – describing the snow falling from clouds as being sifted from leaden sieves , for instance, or her wonderfully acute observation of a cat hunting a bird – making such wide and varied use of ‘thing’, a word which is, to borrow Vendler’s adjective, ‘bloodless’. We can picture an eagle or a parrot or a crow, but a ‘thing with feathers’? No chance.

Dickinson’s is by no means the only notable poem about hope. We might also mention a poem by her namesake, Emily Brontë (1818-48). Like Dickinson, Brontë begins her poem by trying to define hope:

Hope was but a timid friend; She sat without the grated den, Watching how my fate would tend, Even as selfish-hearted men.

She was cruel in her fear; Through the bars one dreary day, I looked out to see her there, And she turned her face away!

Brontë’s is far more of a narrative poem with symbolic undertones (we’ve analysed it here ), while Dickinson’s is lyrical, focusing on the central metaphor. And it is direct metaphor rather than simile: ‘“Hope” is the thing with feathers’.

But we might also note those quotation marks: Dickinson is talking about not hope but ‘hope’, the idea of hope, the way we talk about it rather than the reality. Already we have left behind the concrete realities of the world in favour of abstract ideas (or ideals).

‘“Hope” is the thing with feathers’ is written in lines of alternating iambic tetrameter and trimeter, meaning there are three four iambs in the odd lines and three iambs in the even lines. (An iamb is a metrical foot comprising one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed, as in the word ‘because’: ‘be-CAUSE’.) So, in the middle stanza, we get:

And SWEET- / est – IN / the GALE / – is HEARD – And SORE / must BE / the STORM – That COULD / a-BASH / the LIT- / tle BIRD That KEPT / so MAN- / y WARM –

To this analysis of the poem’s metre, it’s worth drawing attention to the opening trochaic substitution, announcing ‘Hope’ in the poem’s very first line, as its very first word: ‘“HOPE” is’, not ‘“Hope” IS’.

The poem is written in quatrains rhymed abcb , although we should note that ‘soul’ and ‘all’ in the first stanza are not really rhymes but rather pararhyme : ‘off-rhyme’, if you will. Similarly, in the middle stanza, the rhyme follows the pattern abab , while the final stanza is really rhymed abbb , since ‘Extremity’ chimes with both ‘Sea’ and ‘me’.

This brings things together: not only the final three lines, but also the alignment of these various ideas with the speaker’s self, their sense of ‘me’.

About Emily Dickinson

Perhaps no other poet has attained such a high reputation after their death that was unknown to them during their lifetime. Born in 1830, Emily Dickinson lived her whole life within the few miles around her hometown of Amherst, Massachusetts. She never married, despite several romantic correspondences, and was better-known as a gardener than as a poet while she was alive.

Dickinson collected around eight hundred of her poems into little manuscript books which she lovingly put together without telling anyone. Her poetry is instantly recognisable for her idiosyncratic use of dashes in place of other forms of punctuation.

She frequently uses the four-line stanza (or quatrain), and, unusually for a nineteenth-century poet, utilises pararhyme or half-rhyme as often as full rhyme. The epitaph on Emily Dickinson’s gravestone, composed by the poet herself, features just two words: ‘called back’.

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7 thoughts on “A Short Analysis of Emily Dickinson’s ‘Hope is the thing with feathers’”

Yes, this one’s a personal favorite of mine! I know it by heart because I had to discuss it several time during my career as an English tutor and my very short stint as an English teacher.

This is a great analysis, by the way. I hope students for generations to come stumble upon it in their quest to understand it!

Reblogged this on nativemericangirl's Blog .

Nicely done! One of her best and students enjoy it as well.

I like the poem.

• Pingback: Dickinsonian Resources | The Golden Echo

Enjoyed your article very much — but “Only” Emily could write an opening like “Hope is the thing with feathers”? How about “Time is the feather’d thing,” from Jasper Mayne, about 200 years before Emily. If I wrote a poem beginning “Hope is the feather’d thing,” I’d properly be nailed for plagiarism. I love Emily (the most distant cousin imaginable), but other poets exist.

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