In Emily Dickinson’s poem “Hope Is the Thing with Feathers” one can see the passionate, deeply feeling, masterful nature of the author. During the years of her work, there was a Civil War between the bourgeois North and the slave-owning South of America. Quiet Amherst, where Emily Dickinson lived, seemed to lie apart from these events, but even in it they mourned their dead sons. This fact undoubtedly also influenced the work of Emily Dickinson, and it is in it that the social significance of the poem “Hope Is the Thing with Feathers” is reflected.
The poem is dominated by the vowel sound [i], the sibilant deaf consonant [s], the sonorous consonants [l], [m]. The vowel sound [i] is associated with blue, green – these are the colors of light, joy and tranquility: “I’ve heard it in the chilliest land” (Dickinson 1). At the same time, the positive image of “chilliest land” is a metaphor which means the North struggling with the slave system. Voiceless consonant sounds are associated with rustling, noise and dark tones: “sore must be the storm” (Dickinson 1). Thus, in the imagination there is a picture of the struggle of two tones, the struggle of dark and light colors (Parker 22). This confrontation, which is present in the poem even at the phonetic level, reflects the struggle of the north and the south.
The text of the poem alternates ascending and descending tones. The take-off takes place in words expressing hope for the defeat of the slave-owning society (“Hope”, “And sweetest”) (Dickinson 1). The text ends with an ascending tone: the words “of Me” sound with increased emotionality (Dickinson 1). The ascending tone is intertwined in the poem with the descending one and this conveys the ups and downs, emotions and feelings of the lyrical hero. The alternation of ascending and descending tones in the poem conveys the mood of the struggle against the slave-owning society.
The key images of the poem are: hope, sou1, ga1e, storm, bird, extremity. These words characterize the relationship of the central image of the poem (“hope”) and the lyrical hero with the surrounding world (Dickinson 1). “Hope” in this poem is personal, something living in the soul of a person:
“Hope” is the thing with feathers / That perches in the soul (Dickinson 1).
A bird with feathers is a traditional symbol of freedom. By adding wings to the image of hope, the author shows the significance of the outcome of a large-scale event – the war of the North with the South – for each person, for the freedom of an individual.
Verbs that create the image of hope stand in the present tense and express the continuity of action, constancy (“perches”, “sings”, “never stops”) of struggle (Dickinson 1). Since the confrontation between a slave-owning and a free society has been going on for centuries, in combination with the adverb “never”, the verb indicates the constancy of action. The key word “hope” acquires in the text a meaning associated with constancy, thanks to which the motive of confrontation, scattered struggle is heard. The poem uses words that indicate space, natural phenomena: “ga1e”, “storm”, “strangest sea”, “extremity” (Dickinson 1). These words are associated with danger, anxiety and pain. An image of the aggressive surrounding world is created, a similar attitude is transferred to the lyrical hero, to the central image of the poem. In this way, the atmosphere of tension that exists at the moment of the split of American society into two parts is transmitted.
Thus, “Hope Is the Thing with Feathers” is a socially significant poem, since the image of hope in the form of a small timid bird conveys the worldview of thousands of Americans in a difficult historical period. Emily Dickinson managed to accurately convey the state of many citizens at a significant moment in the struggle of the North with the slave-owning South.
Works Cited
Dickinson, Emily. “Hope Is the Thing with Feathers.” Brain Injury Waikato Quarterly Newsletter, vol. 5, no. 47, 2019, pp. 1-8.
Parker, Martin. “Alternative Futures: Hope Is a Thing with Feathers.” Organizing Hope: Narratives for a Better Future, edited by Daniel Ericsson and Monika Kostera, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019, pp. 19-29.