Speaking of Metaphors...
The Emily Dickinson poem below is my mother's personal mantra and my favorite Dickinson poem as well. Have a look and read the question that follows:
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.
Please pick one of the metaphors in this poem (essentially, you can pick any line here) and explain your interpretation of it. Please also explain to what extent you agree/disagree with Dickinson's interpretation of hope. Feel free to incorporate any personal stories to back up your thoughts.
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.
Please pick one of the metaphors in this poem (essentially, you can pick any line here) and explain your interpretation of it. Please also explain to what extent you agree/disagree with Dickinson's interpretation of hope. Feel free to incorporate any personal stories to back up your thoughts.
posted by Kristin L | 2:33 PM
21 Comments:
"I've heard it in the chillest land, and on the strangest sea;"
As Clay said, hope cannot be "abashed or banished", and this is essentially what I think these lines are saying. Hope is never gone, even in the chillest land or the strangest sea where it feels like nothing good can enter there. So I guess it's like kindergarten.
Remember that first day in kindergarten? I walked in, where thirty other kids stood shaking on the "alphabet carpet" just as badly as I was. This was a chilling land where no hope could penetrate. Ok, maybe it wasn't that bad. Actually, it wasn't. Pretty soon I began playing with some of the other kids and I began to hear the little bird sing agian...I had just forgotton how to listen for him. Hope never stops singing.
I like Clay's interpretation of hope as weightless without being light. But I think this weightlessness can be frustrating, too. The perching makes me think of something just beyond our reach and far beyond our grasp. Stretching for it leaves us fragile, and so sometimes our desperation collapses in on itself instead.
And on that note, have a nice evening everybody!
I liked the metaphor, "Hope is the thing with feathers." After reading that line, it stuck in my head throughout the poem. It paints a picture of hope as a light little bird that can fly through the air. This metaphor is appropriate because birds can sustain themselves in the air on nothing but their own power, as does hope. Hope can survive when it has nothing to be based on. The line, "And never stops at all," is another metaphor I agree with. Hope is something that never goes away, it never stops singing like the bird Emily Dickinson wrote about. Overall, I agree with her interpretation of hope, especially within the first stanza.
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"And sings the tune--without the words, And never stops at all," Hope is something that quietly sits in the back of our minds singing to us but is never loud enough to know exactly what it is telling us, there is just always hope. Sometimes the voice of hope is too quiet. Like when horrible things come along in our lives it may seem that all hope is lost but really it is right there singing, our thoughts were just too clouded with worry and doubt to hear it. I completely agree with Emily about hope. It can be emabarassed like Clay said and we can forget it but in ourselves it will always exist.
It's like all the times I have had to transfer schools. I am always nervous and dreading that first day that I forget to have hope. But after a while I get used to it and have hope again subduing all those nerves I can get and keeping me warm like the poem says.
"I've heard it in the chillest land,"
I like this line of the poem because hope can be found anywhere. The most destitute people that live in the poorest places in the world have so much hope for themselves. They never give up and no matter how hard their life is, they are still happy. This is like the third stanza when it talks about the storms that can’t destroy hope. Like Monique and Clay said hope can never be lost or forgotten. I totally agree with Emily's view of hope and I really like the first stanza and how she explains hope. It is always inside of you and no one ever stops hoping even through the toughest times.
“Storm / That could abash the little bird / That keep so many warm.” I interpreted this as hope leaves in times of trouble when a person decides to give up and at that point all hope leaves. I disagree with this I think that hope can be ignored but that people rarely lose all hope because that does not seem like human nature. Everyone wants to think that there is a chance for the unexpected or impossible to come true, and sometimes it does. Hope is not there to assure us of the future rather to give us the strength to go on living our lives as normal as possible. It is that little light shining in the dark that we will follow all our lives and if we are lucky we will catch up with it.
"And sings the tune--without the words"
Hope is one of life's intricate, complex ideas that people cannot truly explain. Why hope still endures in horrendous situations is a mystery that can only be partially penetrated, and it is in this way that Emily's brilliant connection between hope and a song without words emerges.
Music is a universal language that does not needs words to be explained. When one listens to music, they intuitively understand the emotions that come through the music. No logical explanations are needed to make music be appreciated or enjoyed-people are naturally drawn to it. Hope is like music. Just as one doesn't need to explain the feelings of music, hope does not need to be explained. Hope is a feeling that cannot be understood with "logos." Just like music, hope appeals to the deeper subconscious that doesn't explain, but rather feels. Hope is the understanding of the soul, not the mind, and Emily presents this in her poetry.
Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings also addresses the role of hope in sustaining an individual. I found it interesting that both Emily and Angelou both use birds and music as metaphors.
My favorite metaphor, like Christine's, was, "And sweetest in the gale is heard". To me, this line is one of the most profound things that can be said about the nature of man. You've probably all heard me reference one of my favorite quotes, by Camus, "In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer." Both of these quotes, in essence are saying the same thing: that it is only in the moment of your greatest despair that you realize the infinite hopefulness and light residing within you. This is man's greatest strength, his crowning achievement. That which seperates us from the animals. When we are staring down into the abyss we are able to see some unconquerable beam of light. Many of my poems from first semester deal with this topic. That ironic duality that is hope, when the winds howl and the roof caves down around our heads, we can still hear the bird's subtle melody and go racing for the green grass beyond the door.
I fully agree with Dickinson's description of hope in its gentle omnipotence and subtle omniprescence. The one thing that I might disagree with Dickinson on is that it does not ask anything of her. On the contrary, I feel that hope pains us as much as it heals. That is not to say that I feel hope is a negative, for I certainly do not. I am merely saying that, with hope, one is not able to resign themselves to their fate; one is constantly striving to find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
I loved Jessica's description of moving to a new school and meeting new people. Being the only person from my middle school, I felt exactly the same way when I first came to Arapahoe. In fact, I still often feel that way when forced to meet new people, but as Jessica said, hope keeps me warm.
I agree with Monique that the best metaphor in this poem is, "hope is the thing with feathers." To me, it gives the visual of hope being an angel throughout the piece; not just as a little bird. I don't personally have a declared religion; but when I hear the word 'hope' I think of miracles, these being caused by the higher beings. Yet, this metaphor can mean many other things too. A creature or 'thing' with feathers can be up for many other interpretations, and maybe Emily Dickinson did this on purpose; left her poem open for personal connection.
Overall, in this poem, I agree with her definition of hope. Hope is very much like she describes it; it is a warm feeling that only really comes in darker times that could really hurt the victim. But it grows, and fights through it all, no matter what the situation and where, which the last stanza seems to describe.
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Like Erin, Jessica and Monique the line that speaks the most to me is, “Hope is the thing with feathers, That perches in the soul.” I think that this line says that hope is somthing light, that can fly away, yet also inside soar like a bird. Personally I can think of no better animal to compare hope to than a bird. Its song is light and happy and it never seems to sing an angry tune. I generally agree with Emily Dckinson’s description of hope. I think that hope is a feeling stronger than doubt that comes at just the right moment, when you feel like giving up. Hope is perserverence to move forward. You can receive the gifts of hope and never have to give anything back.
"Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul": I think this means that hope is like the feathers of a bird. They are light and can fall off and blow away easily. If you don't stop hope from leaving you, you won't have any hope at all soon. Hope is something that isn't permanent, it can come and go, but if you want to, you can make it stay. I think that it is also saying that hope is somthing that is deep within yourself. It makes a place there, possibly temporary and perches there until it finds another place to perch itself.
"Hope is the thing with feathers." this line compares hope to a bird. Birds pearch, as it says, and sing. Somtimes they can be fun to listen to but other times birds can annoy you. Hope lingers on watching and waiting and sitting inside of you helping you through life. But sometimes this hope can be an annoyance or a let down. No matter your attitude towards life, hope will always be there.
"Hope is the thing with feathers, That perches in the soul,"
I think that this is strong metaphor and completely describes the way hope feels to me. When I think of the word perch, it makes me think of a bird that is calmly but securly sitting in a tree. And although it may not always be noticalbe, it always seems like it is there. And I think that this accuratly describes the way hope feels to me. Emily Dickinson's picture and poem yesterday made me think that she is a lonely disturbed soul but this sort of shows that she does have hope for something.
I personally liked the "Perches in the soul" metaphor. It paints a picture for me that shows like a owl in its hallow in a tree and peering out into the world. I like her interpretation of hope. she says it "never stops at all". I think that if you have hope and believe in something you can achieve anything. i also feel that she does not have much hope for anything because of her last line ""Yet never in extremity asked a crumb of me". To me this explains part of her bleak outlok on life,. if she has no hope what does she have to live for???
“Hope is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul.”
This quote is meaning of hope in my eyes. The thing with feathers is a bird and is calmly sitting on a perch. Although the bird is serene, and calm, it also is ready to fly away at any moment. Hope is always there, overseeing everything, but is able to be invisible. All you have to do is believe and hope will be tranquil and helpful when needed.
"Hope is the thing with feathers"
This is te line that i chose to interpretate. I think that this means that hope can come and o at any moment, and that it can fly away and all hope will be lost. There is no way to contain hope, which is why one might refer to it as having wings. I completly agree with this interpretation of hope, because i know what it is like to "lose hope" and also what it is like to feel hope and to know that there is hope.
"and the sweetest in the gale is heard;" I think that her extended metaphor of hope being a singing bird "perched in the sole" is a great visual. I think that Emily relates alot of her life to nature, and it shows in this poem. When she makes this metaphor of the bird, I think that she is saying that the bird can fly and be anywhere to cheer you up. When the slaves were in the feilds, picking cotten, they would sing our of hope. I think that singing is a way of expressing emotion and letting your feelings "fly" free.
"And sings the tune--without the words"
I think that Dickinson is trying to show that hope is a very sweet and valuable thing. A tune can lift your spirits at some of the worst times, but then again, it isn't a song because it lacks words. I think she is saying that, although hope is great, that reality is even sweeter. I agree with Emily in that music doesn't need an explanation, but in the text I think that the wordlessness of the music adds a tinge of bitterness to the concept of hope.
I agree that hope is a phenominal force in the world, but even so, I think that hope can be unfulfilling.
Sorry this is so late Ms. Kakos!!
I agree with Clay and Ms. Kakos that hope is weightless, but instead of hope landing lightly and standing fast, I thought of hope as waiting for our cue. When Dickinson says "that perches in the soul," I believe that hope waits for us to be inspired. When we are inspired, hope will fly lightly and weightlessly, almost effortlessly. Once we find inspiration in ourselves, hope flies easily. I also think that the line which states "Yet, never, in extremity,/ It asked a crumb of me," supports my idea. Hope never asks you to do anything with your life. This obviously goes against what Spencer said. I don't think that we are urged by hope to do anything with ourselves, but once we find inspiration and purpose in life, I think hope gladly leaps up and flies. I do not think that the bird singing in the poem means that he is constantly trying to be heard. I think he simply has hope in us that we will find him.
I think Emily pretty much got it right, especially "It never asked a crumb of me," part. I really enjoyed this poem since (hopefully you realized this after my place essay) everyday, the birds I see, give me hope for the "nature" in people and they always brighten my days! Birds and hope just seem to go together.
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