Hope

At the end of a TV program last night, one of the characters, a woman FBI agent agent, quoted Emily Dickinson. It was from her poem "Hope is the Thing With Feathers". I couldn't resist googling, easier, than finding the poetry book on the shelf, and reading the entire poem. It seems so appropriate as the sun is high in the sky, the temperature is warming, I keep walking around saying, "the sun always wins!". It is hope, it is acknowledgment of having come through the darkness. So in these morning moments with the winter birds flit briefly past my window, it is a reminder for me that the hope that lives in our hearts is always there, never asking for more than we give, and always singing a sweet note, that gratefully we can hear. Here's to Emily, to hope, to spring!

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.

How would hope "perch," and why does it perch in the soul? As you read this poem, keep in mind that the subject is hope and that the bird metaphor is only defining hope. Whatever is being said of the bird applies to hope, and the application to hope is Dickinson's point in this poem.

The bird "sings." Is this a good or a bad thing? The tune is "without words." Is hope a matter of words, or is it a feeling about the future, a feeling which consists both of desire and expectation? Psychologically, is it true that hope never fails us, that hope is always possible?

Stanza two

Why is hope "sweetest" during a storm? When do we most need hope, when things are going well or when they are going badly?

Sore is being used in the sense of very great or severe; abash means to make ashamed, embarrassed, or self-conscious. Essentially only the most extreme or impossible-to-escape storm would affect the bird/hope. If the bird is "abashed" what would happen to the individual's hope? In a storm, would being "kept warm" be a plus or a minus, an advantage or a disadvantage?

Stanza three

What kind of place would "chillest" land be? Would you want to vacation there, for instance? Yet in this coldest land, hope kept the individual warm. Is keeping the speaker warm a desirable or an undesirable act in these circumstances? Is "the strangest sea" a desirable or undesirable place to be? Would you need hope there? The bird, faithful and unabashed, follows and sings to the speaker ("I've heard it") under the worst, the most threatening of circumstances.

The last two lines are introduced by "Yet." What kind of connection does "yet" establish with the preceding ideas/stanzas? Does it lead you to expect similarity, contrast, an example, an irrelevancy, a joke? Even in the most critical circumstances the bird never asked for even a "crumb" in return for its support. What are the associations with "crumb"? would you be satisfied if your employer offered you "a crumb" in payment for your work? Also, is "a crumb" appropriate for a bird?