Emily
Dickinson’s Hope Is The Thing With Feathers
By
Irfan Suryana
Emily
Elizabeth Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830, in Amherst, Massachusetts.
She was an American poet. Her poetry was heavily influenced by the Metaphysical
poets of seventeenth-century England, as well as her reading of the Book of
Revelation and her upbringing in a Puritan New England town, which encouraged a
Calvinist, orthodox, and conservative approach to Christianity. There are many
poems written by Emily Dickinson such as Why Do I Love You, Sir?, Faith As A
Fine Invention, Nature Is What We See, A Bird Came Down, and so on. One of the
most popular poems is Hope Is The Thing With Feathers. The poem is written in
1861. It was initially published posthumously in the second collection of
Dickinson’s work, Poems by Emily Dickinson, second series, in 1891.
The most appropriate way to analyze
the poem is by seeing the intrinsic elements of the poem. The title of this
poem is a kind of definition of hope. Hope
is the thing with feathers. Hope is associated with a bird so that if it is
connected to the feathers, it can be found that feathers are very important
thing for bird because feathers can form the bird, beautify the bird, and also
can be wings to fly above. That poem is begun with Hope is the thing with feathers. It is a topic sentence so that the
others are supporting sentences. That
perches in the soul. It is a metaphoric because a thing which perches in
the soul is hope. It means that the hope, bird, perches in the soul. And sings the tune without the words. It
means hope sings the tune without the words just like a bird which twitters.
The tone or melody has to include three factors. They are about form, beauty,
and flying above. And never stops at all.
It means that bird twitters endlessly or continuously.
And
sweetest in Gale is heard. Sweetest refers to twitter of bird. The Gale
means great wind and it is positive and religious aspect because it guides to
God. ‘Heard’ means that the melody of the bird can be heard because it is
brought by great wind. And sore must be
storm. ‘Sore’ means hurt and wounded. Storm is also great wind but it is
negative and worldly which is contrastive with the Gale. That could abash the little Bird. Little Bird refers to religious
aspect. That kept so many warm.
‘Warm’ is positive. Storm cannot abash the little Bird which kept so many warm.
I’ve
heard it in the chilliest land. “It’ refers to storm. Land means places,
countries, or oceans. And on the
strangest sea. It is metaphor. There are many meanings of ‘sea’ in
literature like sea of life, a place for to learn something. Yet, never in in Extremity. ‘Extremity’
refers to religious aspect. It asked a
crumb of Me. ‘Me’ means the existence in the world. Someone who is like
puppet can be a precious person, if he sacrifices something for others and the
little Bird experienced learning process through suffering. Although there is
storm which means the difficulty of life, the little Bird is never afraid
because little Bird wants to had the beauty, ideal, and so on just to God.
In brief, Hope Is The Thing With Feathers
is a poem written by Emily Elizabeth Dickinson which narrates about handing the
beauty, ideal, and so on just to God even though there are many difficulties to
reach that. It is represented by the word ‘Hope’ which is described the Bird.
There are many religious aspects which in this poem such as Gale, little Bird,
Extremity, and Me. However, there is also worldly aspect like Storm. In this
poem, there are positive aspects like ‘the Gale’ and ‘warm’ and there is
negative aspect like Storm. This poem is used many superlative adjectives like
sweetest, chilliest, and strangest. This poem is very great poem because
although this poem only consists of three stanzas, it has long narration and
incredible meanings which can make the reader understand what exactly hope is.
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