"Hope" Is the Thing with Feathers

“‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers” relies on an extended metaphor comparing “Hope” (Line 1) to “the thing with feathers” (Line 1). Though much of the poem seems to describe a bird, this poem is not a nature study. The speaker clarifies in the first line that the poem examines the concept of “Hope” (Line 1). The placement of “Hope” (Line 1) in quotation marks suggests that, like a quotation or a word being sourced for a dictionary definition, the word is taken from outside the text. This sense of displacement is reinforced by the way “Hope” (Line 1) carries the stress and emphasis as the first word, making the first foot of the line a trochee in an otherwise iambic line.

In their description of “the thing with feathers” (Line 1), the speaker attempts to describe and understand the abstract concept of hope. In fact, a close reading of the bird imagery reveals that the vehicle of the metaphor is quite ambiguous and may not be a bird whatsoever. The speaker hesitates to make the connection between “Hope” (Line 1) and the bird explicit, first calling it “the thing with feathers” (Line 1) instead of merely a bird. This hesitation may suggest that the speaker is formulating their conception of hope in real-time, or that they have difficultly describing it. The definite article “the” (Line 1), which normally particularizes a noun, paired with the vague and awkward phrase “thing with feathers” (Line 1) demonstrates this difficulty. What the speaker describes is harder to grasp than a bird. The difficulty is furthered by the “words” (Line 3) that end the third line and that would rhyme, like most of the poem’s lines, if the speaker had called hope a “bird.” This diction betrays the speaker’s frustration, and that frustration is unresolved until Line 7, where the speaker outright calls the creature “the little Bird” (Line 7).

Line 2 further complicates this image, stating that the thing “perches in the soul” (Line 2). The word “perches” (Line 2) again suggests a bird—but it is impossible for a material bird to perch in one’s immaterial soul. Rather, Dickinson seems to be engaging with the Christian tradition of aligning birds with angels. In Christian symbolism, birds have long represented guardian angels who provide guidance and help one’s soul rise above worldly concerns. Many poets have made this connection between birds and angels, perhaps most notably the modernist German poet Rainer Maria Rilke, who refers to angels as “Vögel der Seele” or “birds of the soul” (Line 2) in his second Duino Elegy (Rilke, Rainer Maria, Second Duino Elegy. 1922. Translated by Stephen Mitchell. Poetry Chaikhana).

The “thing with feathers” (Line 1), then, is a sort of double-layered metaphor. The speaker uses the bird as a metaphor for hope, but that bird also represents an angel—a creature worthy of the definite article describing “the thing with feathers” (Line 1) due to its Christian theological centrality. The same definite article also refers to “the tune without the words” (Line 3). The definite article here, similarly, implies that the speaker does not refer to a mere bird song but perhaps to something like a recognizable hymn. Meanwhile, the statement that the “tune [...] never stops – at all” (Line 4) further solidifies the singing creature’s immateriality and ability to sing without rest or, as the last poem’s final line states, food.

This “tune” (Line 3) carries into the second stanza, where it “is heard” (Line 5) “in the Gale” (Line 5). The capitalization of “Gale” (Line 5) signifies that it is being used as a proper noun, and again the definite article distinguishes it as a particular “Gale” (Line 5). Like the “thing with feathers” (Line 1), this “Gale” (Line 5) is immaterial. The speaker states that “sore must be the storm – / That could abash the little Bird” (Lines 6-7). “sore” (Line 6), in this context, describes something that causes sorrow or distress; otherwise, it would make no sense that a storm could “abash” (Line 7) or disconcert “the little Bird” (Line 7). The storms in this poem, therefore, should be seen as instances of sorrow or emotional turmoil. When “the sweetest [tune] is heard” (Line 5) “in the Gale” (Line 5), the speaker communicate that hope is present even during moments of severe emotional turmoil (Line 5). That the speaker must imagine a “sore” (Line 6) storm to “abash” (Line 7) the bird also suggests that the bird, or hope, is resilient to most emotional fluctuations.

The speaker then moves from the symbols of the “tune” (Line 3) and the “storm” (Line 6) to signify one’s emotional life to the symbols of heat and cold. In the last line of the second stanza, the speaker introduces these symbols, saying that the “Bird [...] kept so many warm” (Lines 7-8). The bird’s plurality and ability to keep multiple people warm reaffirms that it is an immaterial force—perhaps an angel or the concept of hope itself, capable of being multiple places at one time. The warmth in Line 8 is juxtaposed with “the chillest land” (Line 9) in Line 9. The “tune” (Line 3) that can be heard above the storm in the second stanza is characterized in the third stanza as able to bring comfort in the cold. It is implied between Lines 8 and 9 that it is the song, not the bird, that keeps people warm. Similarly, the speaker states that they heard the song “on the strangest Sea” (Line 10) and “in Extremity” (Line 11) suggesting both that the song is carried with the speaker and that it, like a guardian angel, acts as a guide in unfamiliar places.

Though the final images of the poem are of strange locales, the poem ends with a feeling of stability and familiarity. This is, in part, due to the last stanza taking a turn inward. The speaker opens and closes the stanza with the first person pronouns “I” (Line 9) and “me” (Line 12). The last stanza also has an atypical rhyme scheme that contributes to this familiarity. The last three lines, ending in “Sea” (Line 10), “Extremity” (Line 11), and “me” (Line 12) all end in perfect rhymes, creating a sense of predictability and docility. The speaker, then, seems to be comfortable with the definition of hope they have provided and are no longer frustrated with the inadequate metaphors in the first stanza.