Emily Dickinson

She does not look very hopeful.

In the sixth grade Mrs. Sims called me Emily Dickinson because I refused to read my poetry out loud. I was utterly offended but ever since then I have had a small fondness for Emily Dickinson. My sophomore year I was forced to memorize a poem in German but I rebelled and memorized one in English (too). I memorized Hope by Emily Dickinson. Although she wrote most of her poems during the Transcendentalist period, most of her poetry, including Hope, takes the form of the metaphysical period. Metaphysical poets like Andrew Marvel and others enchanted her, and she copied their style with her own “compressed wit and irony.”

Hope

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.

Much of her poetry was influenced by her upbringing in a Puritan New England town that encouraged Calvinist religions. Just like the Calvinist religion, her style tended to be preachy because of the influence the Bible and hymns had on her poetry. This poem also adheres to that structure. She preaches that hope is like a bird that remains at her side through the toughest times, and yet requires nothing of her. Dickinson’s wit shines through with her distinct word choice, especially with the word “abash” in the second stanza—a rather rough choice to describe the bird.