"Hope" Is The Thing With Feathers By Emily Dickinson

"Hope" is the Thing with Feathers, written by the American poet Emily Dickinson, beautifully symbolizes the hope inherent in human nature. She shows us hope as something singing, feathered and perched like a bird. Let's look at the poem as a whole:

“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.

In the first stanza, Dickinson symbolizes hope to us as a bird, and she does so for a reason. When people see birds or hear their voices, something happens in their inner world. Everyone can name this feeling for themselves, but I call it finding inner peace and finding inner peace makes us hopeful. Just as birds perch, hope perches within us. It is never lost. Hope does not need to be excessive to make us feel good. Just like birds sing without words. They sing, they don't stop and we know they are outside, they are part of nature. 

In the second stanza, referring to the difficult times we go through in our lives, she talks about how hope keeps us strong. The word "Gale" represents a strong wind. The presence of hope in difficult times creates a comfort zone for us humans and provides warmth, like a bird's feather. 

In the last stanza, she talks about how hope is always with us in unknown situations. Even hope is in the "chillest land" and "strangest sea", even in our most desperate moments, we actually strive for hope. It's a common thing, but when we think about it like this, we realize that we are filled with hope in every difficult situation. Hope nourishes the human spirit and it takes nothing away from us, it asks nothing from us.