The Endurance of Hope

An important theme of “Hope is the thing with feathers” is the endurance of hope. Dickinson’s speaker portrays this theme by constantly reasserting the presence of hope in every stanza of the poem. From the outset, we are introduced to “Hope” as “the thing with feathers” (1) and the song it sings. In the second stanza, its song continues to be “heard” (5), and in the final stanza the speaker avows that she “heard” it (9). The repetition of the verb “heard,” besides placing emphasis on the importance of the act of hearing, also enacts the durability of the song within the language of the poem itself. The repetition of “heard” also serves to lend the poem a musical quality, as if it had a refrain like the song. While the song is passively “heard” (5) in the second stanza by an unnamed, unknown person or...