Romanticism in Hope is The Thing with Feathers

Romanticism in Hope is The Thing with Feathers
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.
Definition of Romanticism
Romantic: adj
of an 18C artistic movement: relating to the movement in late 18th- and early 19th-century music, literature, and art that departed from classicism and emphasized sensibility, the free expression of feelings, nature, and the exotic
1. involving sexual love: involving or characteristic of a love affair or sexual love, especially when the relationship is idealized or exciting and intense
2. suitable for love: characterized by or suitable for lovemaking or the expression of tender emotions
3. involving enthusiasm: relating to or characterized by a fascination or enthusiasm for something, especially of an uncritical or indefinable kind
4. involving adventure: relating to or characterized by adventure, excitement, the potential for heroic achievement, and the exotic
5. idealistic: characterized by or arising from idealistic or impractical attitudes and expectations
6. imaginary: imaginary or fictitious in an extravagant or glamorizing way



Characteristic of Romanticism
Romanticism is a movement in the literature of virtually every country of Europe, the United States, and Latin America that lasted from about 1750 to about 1870, characterized by reliance on the imagination and subjectivity of approach, freedom of thought and expression, and an idealization of nature. The term romantic first appeared in 18th-century English and originally meant “romance like”—that resembles the fanciful character of medieval romances. Romantic poems affirmed the importance of feeling and imagination to poetic creation and disclaimed conventional literary forms and subjects. In romantic poems imagination was praised over reason, emotions over logic, and intuition over science—making way for a vast body of literature of great sensibility and passion. This literature emphasized a new flexibility of form adapted to varying content, encouraged the development of complex and fast-moving plots, and allowed mixed genres (tragicomedy and the mingling of the grotesque and the sublime) and freer style.
Romanticism Characteristics in Hope is The Thing with Feathers
The characteristics of romantic poem that we can find in this poem are: the imaginative metaphor, the subjectivity of the writer, the freedom of thought and expression, and also the idealization of nature.
The Application of Romantic Characteristics in the poem
The first characteristic of romanticism applied in this poem is that imaginative metaphor. It can be seen from the first line of the poem. Hope is the thing with feathers. Here the writer imaginatively compares hope with “the thing” which has feathers. This comparison also conjures other characteristic of romantic poem which is the subjectivity of the poetess. Everyone may have different answer if they were asked to describe hope into something visible. They may mention that hope is like the wind that soars above the sky, that hope is like the rain that makes the rose grows, and etc. The various answers that may arise prove that this comparison is very subjective. It is due to the fact that human are imaginative and that their imagination are always subjective.
The third characteristic that is the freedom of thought and expression of the poetess can be seen from her expressiveness in pouring her idea towards something. She can expressively and freely express her idea of hope. In her opinion, hope is like a bird that perches in our soul. It always sings the tune without words and never stops singing. The only thing that can abash hope is the sorest storm. From these descriptions we can conclude that the poetess can express her feeling and idea so expressively with a beautiful diction and metaphor so that it results in a good composition.
The last characteristic is the idealization of nature. It is clearly shown through the use of words referring to nature and asking our mind to imagine about nature such as: bird, perch, gale, storm, chill land, and sea. The use of these words is so appropriate with the theme of the poem that is comparing hope with a bird. As we know that a bird is a small free animal that can explore nature freely and never stays in one single place. No wonder great number of words referring to nature is used here in order to capture the adventure of the little bird.
The Basic Meaning
The first question popping up into my mind after reading this poem is why the writer described hope as “the thing” rather than saying it directly as “a bird”? Of course we will understand that “the thing” described here is a bird after we read the whole poem. However, the question is still the same, why then the poetess so deliberately refrained from referring to a bird? The possible answer that coming to my mind is that the poetess herself wants to suggest the fact that we do not really know what hope looks like. We only know that it exists; we have never seen it. Although it may seem like a bird -it perches, it has feathers, it sings, etc- we do not know what kind of bird it seems most like. Perhaps all of this is being suggested in one word, “thing”. This “thing” emphasizes our not knowing of how the shape of hope is actually.
A professor from Melbourne University, Melanie Brookyn answer this question as such: “Hope is a "thing" because it is a feeling; the thing/feeling is like a bird. Dickinson uses the standard dictionary format for a definition; first she placed the word in a general category ("thing"), and then she differentiated it from everything else in that category. For instance, the definition of a cat would run something like this: a cat is a mammal (the first part of the definition places it in a category); the rest of the definition would be "which is nocturnal, fur-bearing, hunts at night, has pointed ears, etc. (the second part of the definition differentiates the cat from other all mammals)”.
The answer of the question may be correct. But in my opinion, I still believe that the poetess called hope as “the thing” merely because we actually do not know how it looks like. The further answer why she does not give us an exact description of the kind or the size of the bird probably is because she wants us to imagine and define by ourselves how hope should take shape.
The next question is that why that “thing” is completed with feathers. The answer is can be that from the beginning the author imagines hope as a bird. Only that she does not want to be so direct. She wants to begin describing it little by little, by giving us a little clue in every stanza, just like a puzzle to make it more imaginative and interseting. Hope, of course, is not an animate thing, it is inanimate, but by giving hope feathers, she begins to create an image hope in our minds. The imagery of feathers conjures up hope in itself. Feathers represent hope because feathers enable us to fly and give us strength to explore the sky. Similarly, hope also gives us strength to go on in life. In contrast, broken feathers or a broken wing grounds a person, and conjures up the image of needy person who has been beaten down by life. Their wings have been broken and they no longer have the power to hope.
Why does the bird "perch" in the soul? How would hope "perch," and why does it perch in the soul? As we read this poem, we have to keep in mind that the subject is hope and that the bird metaphor is only defining hope. Whatever is being said of the bird applies to hope, and the application to hope is Dickinson's point in this poem. Dickinson continues to use the imagery of a bird to describe hope in the second stanza. Hope, she is implying, perches or roosts in our soul. The soul is the home for hope. It can also be seen as a metaphor. Hope rests in our soul the way a bird rests on its perch. If we think it further we can say that like a bird that perches on the three, hope that perches in the soul can come and go freely as it like.
The bird "sings." Is this a good or a bad thing? Most of us probably would say that listening to a song is a cheerful experience. Listening to a song usually gives us a kind of relief, makes us relax, and gives us spirit. Again the thing with feathers that sings the tune here symbolizes hope that can makes us a happy person who is full of spirit. But then the tune is "without words." Is it a good or bad sign? We have to think of the time when we are listening to a tune without word. Sometimes the tune is much more meaningful and can reach into the bottom of our heart if it is sung without words. By describing this the poetess as if asking: Is hope a matter of words, or is it a feeling about the future, a feeling which consists both of desire and expectation? The answer is obvious, hope is a feeling rather than words. We do not have to say the hope if we hope that something will be happen. We just have to keep it ourselves. There is a superstition that if we hope something we should not say it because it may not happen if we announce it to others.
And never stops at all. In the next stanza Dickinson uses the imagery of a bird’s continuous song to represent eternal hope. As it perches in our soul we will hear a never ending song that always encourages us in our life. The fifth stanza “And sweetest in the gale is heard” Why is hope "sweetest" during a storm? When do we most need hope, when things are going well or when they are going badly? The bird’s song of hope is heard sweetest in the gale. Again, it is a metaphor symbolizing that hope is badly needed when we are having bad times. It conjures up images of a bird’s song of hope whistling above the sound of gale force winds and offering the promise that soon the storm will end.
Sore is being used in the sense of very great or severe; abash means to make ashamed, embarrassed, or self-conscious. Essentially only the most extreme or impossible-to-escape storm would affect the bird/hope because it is a creature that is so full of undyning spirit. If the bird is "abashed" what would happen to the individual's hope? Of course something bad will happen because there will be no more warm keeper. We will be frozen by cold which symbolizes desperation.
What kind of place would "chillest" land and the strangest sea be? Of course it will be the saddest place where no one one to visit. The land is so chilly that no one can hold on to live there. While, the sea is so strange that no one has ever visited such place. However, the bird, faithful and unabashed, follows and sings to the speaker under the worst, the most threatening of circumstances.
The last two lines are introduced by "Yet." This kind of connection conjures up a contrastive feeling. It strengthens the faithfulness of the little bird. No matter hard the situation is, hope or the little bird never stops singing and never stops giving us courage to go on struggling our battle in life.
Yet never in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
In the last two lines, Dickinson informs us that the bird of hope asks for no favor or price in return for its sweet song. Even in the most critical circumstances the bird never asked for even a "crumb" in return for its support. The word “crumb” here associates a tiny piece of something. It means that the bird never ask anything, even a little bit, to us in return of the favour. Besides, the word “crumb” is also appropriate for a bird because it can only eat something little by little. Thus, the world, “crumb” is an appropriate portion for feeding a bird.
Hope is a free gift. It exists for all of us. All we must do is not clip the wings of hope and let it fly and sing freely. Its song can be heard over the strangest seas, coldest lands, and in the worst storms. It is a song that never ends as long as we do not let it.
"'Hope' is the thing with feathers--..."
Conclusion
The speaker describes hope as a bird ("the thing with feathers") that perches in the soul. There, it sings wordlessly and without pause. The song of hope sounds sweetest "in the Gale," and it would require a terrifying storm to ever "abash the little Bird / That kept so many warm." The speaker says that she has heard the bird of hope "in the chillest land-- / And on the strangest Sea--", but never, no matter how extreme the conditions, did it ever ask for a single crumb from her.
Like almost all of Dickinson's poems, "'Hope' is the thing with feathers--..." takes the form of an iambic trimeter that often expands to include a fourth stress at the end of the line (as in "And sings the tune without the words--"). Like almost all of her poems, it modifies and breaks up the rhythmic flow with long dashes indicating breaks and pauses ("And never stops--at all--"). The stanzas, as in most of Dickinson's lyrics, rhyme loosely in an ABCB scheme, though in this poem there are some incidental carryover rhymes: "words" in line three of the first stanza rhymes with "heard" and "Bird" in the second; "Extremity" rhymes with "Sea" and "Me" in the third stanza, thus, technically conforming to an ABBB rhyme scheme.
This simple, metaphorical description of hope as a bird singing in the soul is an example of Dickinson's homiletic style, derived from Psalms and religious hymns. Dickinson introduces her metaphor in the first two lines ("'Hope' is the thing with feathers-- / That perches in the soul--"), then develops it throughout the poem by telling what the bird does (sing), how it reacts to hardship (it is unabashed in the storm), where it can be found (everywhere, from "chillest land" to "strangest Sea"), and what it asks for itself (nothing, not even a single crumb). Still, we find a few of the verbal shocks that so characterize Dickinson's mature style: the use of "abash," for instance, to describe the storm's potential effect on the bird, wrenches the reader back to the reality behind the pretty metaphor; while a singing bird cannot exactly be "abashed," the word describes the effect of the storm--or a more general hardship--upon the speaker's hopes.
Above all, this poem is beautifully constructed through a right use of diction that is supporting the theme. The beauty also can be seen from the freely expressive and imaginative metaphor. While. In the rhyme scheme, the poetess is a bit uncareful. She uses lots of imperfect rhyme words. However, it never lessen the beauty and the deep meaning of this poem.

Written by: Ana Zahida (305222481978)

References:
• Brooklyn, Melanie. 2008. Emily Dickinson: Hope. (Online), (http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/hope.html, accessed on May 13th 2008)
• Reaske, Christopher Russel. 1999. How To Analyze Poetry. New York: Department of English Harvard University.
• Clements, Robert J. 2004. Romanticism (literature). Microsoft® Encarta® Reference Library.