Hello Everyone,
Once I was thrown into a dungeon.
I tried hard to claw out.
I would have been dead.
If it had not been for "Hope".
We have talked about Hope is the thing with feathers in week 2 of our meeting. But it was only for a fleeting moment. I would like you to dwell on it longer. What do you understand from "Hope" is the thing with feathers?
Honestly, the first time I came across the title of this poem, the first thing that came to my mind was the slim hope of someone, considering how thin and light the feather is.
ReplyDelete“That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -“
Despite knowing the low possibility of having that “hope” to come true, the persona chose to remain hoping for the expected outcome.
This is merely my opinion based on my initial reading experience.
Upon reading this poem, I think that this is what it is if someone were to describe the thing called "hope". Hope is there in the harshest situation and warms people heart without exception. It exist deep within in our soul and however small it is, it has the capacity to help us move forward and hopeful of the future.
ReplyDeleteI also believe that if a person live without hope,that would be so pitiful to not have anything to hold on to when despair and sadness come crushing in life. Our perception on this world would be very bleak and like many others, hope is the thing that help me through many difficult times in life.
This is what I honestly feel in regards to this poem and it's beautiful how such a short poem could convey such message.
Noradila GS 57084
YANXIN GS60492
ReplyDeleteEmily is one of my favorite poets. After reading of this poem，I can think about the “hope” as “dream”. I always feel that I’m not good at expressing，talked about “dream”， I don’t speak fast，think a lot， but don’t say much，but I hope everyone can understand it.
I think every poem contains life， and every image has a different meaning. we only can use our own thinking to understand. There is no definite answer about “hope”. But，the full of infinite possibilities，it's very beautiful.
It’s a pity， now it's too weak. Time is really scary. The dream is retreating， when I want to catch it，but it is very powerless. Just like “hope”， hope is a bird with wings，inhabiting in the soul，singing songs without words，and will never stop. We don’t need to despair， don’t give up.
What I understood after reading the poem is that hope is a bird. Hope is necessary to a existence of a life. I feel it gives us some sense of purpose, it gives us some sense of your future. Without hope, we got problems! Hope, is what get us through the wretched storm! Hope, is what sustains us when bad things happen. That little tiny bird sitting in the middle of the storm and the winds blowing...and all of its little feathers are getting ruffled and yet it just keeps singing. In other words, the HOPE of bird reminds us to never give up no matter what. Lastly, what I could conclude is that the hope of bird just gave to me everything and never asked anything back from me. This genius little poem says there is no such thing as hopeless life. The minute our lives becomes hopeless, it's not a life anymore. You always got to have something that you get up for in the morning!
ReplyDeleteThis poem is simple and short, but it has brought me a lot of strength. Maybe when you are in a happy and peaceful day, you don't realize the importance of hope. So“ sweetest in the gale is hard" makes me feel the most shocking. Indeed, Ihope is the best gift when you encounter the greatest difficulties and adversity. Hope will lead you out of the shadows and touch the sunshine. The difficulty is to bring you pain and shake your heart, but as long as you have that hope, you can be reborn. Yang Han gs60671
ReplyDeleteWhen I read this poem for the first time, I somehow pictured the word 'feather' with the image of a quill pen, a writing tool which people used in the past. Then my mind began to picture a person sitting on a desk facing out his/her window on a sunny day, writing about his dreams and 'hopes' in his/her diary.
ReplyDeleteThen on the fourth line of the second stanza "That kept so many warm-", gave me the thought on how feathers were created by God to keep birds warm from the cold stormy weather, indicating that hope is very much like feathers which shield us from the gloomy days and keep us warm until the bright days come about.
Lee Jasen GS60419
I have come to realise that the word “hope” shows something common in our life. The word “Hope” has been portrayed as something light as the feather. Hope is intangible thing. We have been talking a lot about it, we can always feel it within us, in our soul and we always pray for our hope to come true without even getting to see it beforehand. We deeply fall for our own hopes. Sometime we even grieve whenever our hope is not going as what we have wished for. Even so, we still keep holding to our hopes really high. The persona said “Hope is the thing with feathers” makes me thought that actually it is true, because with feather, it is very soft, pulpy and smooth. It means, we are actually holding into something really valuable. We have to take care of it really gently and it should not mean to be broken. However, once the its broken, the feather would not look nice and beautiful anymore. It is the same thing when we put our hope onto someone, but once he/she did something that hurt us in any way, it will break our trusts and hopes on them. Therefore, hope can be something precious but it also can be a hailstorm. One thing for sure that “hope” will always be there and it never dies. Hence, it is only depending on us to hold onto a very meaningful hope in our life.
ReplyDeleteNorshaidatul
GS57539
The author personifies the word hope, which is like a bird with wings. Birds are the smallest and insignificant animals, and some people will ignore them and will not care about them all their lives; But some people will cherish it, and even cherish it as a companion. The author puts the most overlooked "hope" into the wings and gives vitality. No matter what situation people are in, they still have birds to keep company and have hope to be found.
ReplyDeleteGS60656
Kong Fanrui
ChenLiping GS60609
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this poem, what impressed me was the word "hope". Dickinson symbolized hope as a bird and kept calling it as if it would never stop. I think hope is a kind of belief. When you encounter a desperate situation in your life, hope is the only belief to stick to it, as if to say that everything will get better. Therefore, as Dickinson thinks, hope never stops, it always accompanies people and never leaves. If people lose hope, like the living corpse. they have no desire to survive, and their attitude is negative. For those who have no hope, life is meaningless. In a word. Don't lose hope in our life and enjoy life with hope.
This poem is really great which describes the importance of hope in our lives. Hope is something that everyone will have in them. Hope gives us the strength to keep on believing and have faith in our lives. It's something that silently hides in us to keep on moving to the next stage of our lives although we have gone through a lot of struggles and failures. ‘Hope come true’ might be rare but yet it’s a pillar of success in every human being's life. Some circumstances might make us end up in the wildest situation and there comes ‘hope’ to remind us this too will pass and all these struggles will pay off by bringing us to the peak of the mountain which we have never imagined. I believe that hope is a magic that has the willpower to make the impossible possible. Each individual will gain the strength and self confidence to achieve their future goals despite all the struggles only through ‘HOPE’. So, this is what I feel after reading the poem a few times. Apart from that, I really liked the idea of the poet using a bird to describe hope; “Hope” is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune without the words, and never stops at all.” These lines are beautifully written where it portrays that hope is like a bird and it remains with us forever.
ReplyDeleteNISHANTINI GANESAN (GS57055)
NURUL NADRAH- GS60743
ReplyDeleteWhat can I conclude after reading this poem is that the persona had expressed the way she think about hope. In this poem, she doesn’t mention specifically that the feathers belong to a bird. It could be a quill pen that she used to write this poem. Emily was a quiet person and she had less friends. So, I guess she entertained herself by writing and expressing all her feelings that can be hard to describe. Even though the quill pen is tiny and soft, it can give a big impact to someone’s life.
Hope is part of everyone’s life and each person has different understanding about hope. As for me, if I’ve been too miserable dealing with things that didn’t go my way, I prefer to write all my failures and hopes in my diary instead of talking to others. Sometimes writing hopes in our diary can make a tough present situation more bearable.
Lee Jia Yi
ReplyDeleteTo me, 'hope' can be something big yet small at the same time. If we don't hold on to 'hope' very tightly, it might fly away anytime, just like a light feather. However, hope can be so powerful as it provides us the strength and spirit to keep on moving to overcome all the hardships we encounter. Therefore, it all depends on how we view 'hope' -- whether it's like a light feather, or it's something 'heavy' and important.
Khairunisa
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, I would think that the poet is bringing in the sorrow moment in her life to this poem. I can feel that the poet is trying to hold to "hope". But in many ways, it is not something that the poet can hold on forever. It is something that can easily slips. As we know that feathers are light, and can easily fly away.
Mas Shazila
ReplyDeleteBy reading this poem, it indirectly and constantly gives me the feeling of 'Hopefulness'. As for me, this poem is strongly associated, connected and related to our life, our everyday life. In fact, we are always hoping for something. I am very much attracted to the way the poet symbolizes the feather as 'Hope', which, personally for me, it indicates that there's always hope in whatever situations that we are facing.
Chen Lulu GS59374
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the poet, I realize that hope is important thing in our life.Hope is like a fire in the dark, illuminating the road ahead, hope is like a small oasis in the desert, giving people the determination to survive, hope is like a cup of tea in the afternoon, making people feel the beauty of life . This is the power of hope.
In this poem the poet equates hope with bird. Hope is the last thing ever lost. It builds a person up and gives his a pat of his sholder so he can go on with his daily activities. The feathers themselves represent hope and life cycle. If a bird has lost its feathers,it is either ill or possibly has lost the ability to fly. Hope is said to withstand anything, it provides comfort and solace and never expect anything in return from us. It is all inspirational, yet mysterious. Hope is something we rely on, a boost for us to go on with life no matter how much obstacles we tend to face a long the way.
ReplyDeleteSanttana Looganaden
GS60786
Personally, I think the poem "Hope is the thing with feathers” by Emily Dickinson is such a great poem that resonates with a lot people regardless of our backgrounds. This poem talks about how every day we will be facing a lot of different challenges, but with hope, we manage to go through most of those difficulties. I really like how Emily Dickinson metaphorically portrayed hope as a strong-willed bird that lives within human soul and this bird sings come rain or shine, gale or storm, good times or bad. It shows how, even in the depths of despair, the poem seems to say, people can still have hope—and this hope will sustain them. The theme of “Hope” in this poem is definitely something that a lot of people could relate, including me.
ReplyDeleteNUR AFIQAH BT MOH NASIR GS54692
From my own understanding, hope can be describe in different situations. For this poem, in my own opinion this poem is about heart broken. The line ' Once I was thrown into a dungeon' is like her partner decided to leave her when she's not ready. She tried her best to claw out from the place and there's hope waiting for her or else she would have dead. Hope here describes the new light came into her life after she went through the dark tunnel in her love life. - NOORHAYATI
ReplyDeleteAs for me “hope” it is indeed a fleeting moment. Actually life is full of hope everywhere. If you can catch it you can see it. But if you live in despair all the time, you will always miss the hope in life. Different people have different attitudes as well. For example, there are some people they always stay in positive even though they may experienced frustration, they still can see the hope everywhere. Maybe just because of a beautiful sunrise, or meet someone that they really want to see. However,there are also some people who may have experienced some failures or bad things, and then they lose confidence in life. And feel that there is no hope in life, so everything they see is black.
ReplyDeleteLI RONGRONG GS61069
Emily is a very famous American poet. Most of her poems` topics are mainly deep and serious like death, nature, love .but this poem is an exception. It talks about the hope which is positive and energetic.
ReplyDeleteThis poem is very short and simple. It`s rhyme is like ‘ABAB’ and it follows this rhythm in this whole poem seriously. In this poem, it mainly use the metaphor methodology. It compares the hope to birds( thins with feathers) and compare the gale and the storm to the difficulties.
it praises the hope and encourages people to own hope, because the poet believes the hope could bring the opportunities in any situations. And no matter what kind of environment people are in , the hope could bring them out troubles.
Wu Hanshuang GS60548
In this poem, the bird's feathers also represent hope. The bird grows up gradually, with plump wings day by day, and finally flies to the blue sky and soars in the sky. Call on people to be full of hope no matter what difficulties they encounter in life. Hope more, just like the feathers of birds, can have a new world. Because full of hope, you can see many different landscapes and meet many different people. Perhaps because of the hardship and misfortune of life, some people forget hope, but in fact, in life there is more joy and happiness, and these good things are brought by hope.
ReplyDeleteGuo Qian GS60306
Hi Guo Qian,
DeleteDo you think it's the bird or the bird's feathers that are used as a metaphor for hope?
Nur Balqis binti Azhari GS58198
ReplyDeleteI love the way Emily Dickson express different types feeling in this poem. When I read throughout this poem of ‘Hope’, the word of ‘feathers’ is not referring to a bird at all but it reminds me on how we put hope when we are in hardest time. Put hopes only to The Almighty will make us more stronger to live and face through all hardships in life. This poet puts imagery words in this poem in order to make the readers understand why putting hope is an important thing. The image of bird in this poem try to tell us that birds are related with our lives. For instance, the words of ‘sore’…’storm’….’chillest’…’strangest’….’extremity’… these imagery words showed that the birds will stay calm, brave living in this world even though life hits. What I can conclude here, hope is a part of human's life. Every humans wish something and 'hope' lets us decide what we desire for our worlds.
Gao Lianhua GS60566
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this poem, I think "hope is the thing with feathers" states hope is a kind of power that positive, warm, strong, and selfless. Because an animal with feather which means it can be used to keep cold out and to protect body which doesn’t freeze in the winter.
the whole pome uses metaphor to describe what is hope like. For instance, hope is deep in our soul, even it is wordless when we get into risk, hope will use its powerful words to encourage us to face, to fight. However, I have a different opinion for "hope is the thing with feathers." Because, some reader think hope is something separates from human-being, maybe it is belief or creed that others experienced or created, which those can encourage somebody. But I think hope is the people, which only you can make your hope exist that somebody cannot do it. If you don't have hope or passion for what you want to fight, then other people can do nothing although they have a lot of experience on the same thing. So all in all, "hope is the thing with feathers." I think it is a kind of power with the spontaneity that fulls of the powerful, warm, strong, positive.
"Hope is the thing with feathers" (written around 1861) is a popular poem by the American poet Emily Dickinson. In the poem, "Hope" is metaphorically transformed into a strong-willed bird that lives within the human soul—and sings its song no matter what. Essentially, the poem seeks to remind readers of the power of hope and how little it requires of people. The speaker makes it clear that hope has been helpful in times of difficulty and has never asked for anything in return. "Hope is the Thing with Feathers" is one of a number of poems by Dickinson that breathes new life into an abstract concept by using surprising imagery and figurative language.
ReplyDeleteThe speaker defines "Hope" as a feathered creature that dwells inside the human spirit. This feathery thing sings a wordless tune, not stopping under any circumstances.
Its tune sounds best when heard in fierce winds. Only an incredibly severe storm could stop this bird from singing. The "Hope" bird has made many people feel warm.
The speaker has heard the bird's singing in the coldest places, and on the weirdest seas. But in the speaker's experiences, even the most extreme ones, the bird has never asked for anything in return.
The "hope is the thing with feathers" in this poem portrays that hope can withstand just about anything in life. Hope defines the feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen. This poem illustrates that there will always be a hope for us in no matter what happened in life. In the first stanza, the birds' feathers and tune are viewed as the hope is an eternal thing and presents in the human soul as the bird keeps singing in rain, storm, and shine. It shows that hope is miracle and undefeatable. In addition, the poet also feels that hope is the only thing she had even though she almost lost herself as stated here "Once I was thrown into a dungeon. I tried hard to claw out. I would have been dead. If it had not been for 'Hope'".
ReplyDeleteThe poem uses the method of figurative writing to describe itself as a bird. The feathers of the bird seem to be thin, but it is the feathers that give the bird warmth and life, with the feathers of the bird can fly. If the hope as a feather, maybe my hope in the eyes of others is not worth talking about, it is light and unimportant, but it is hope that gives me the power of life. Our hopes don't have to be heard, so it has no lyrics. In our life, difficulties may destroy us, but it is hope that gives us the greatest warmth. So don't despise every feather, and don't despise the wishes of others.
ReplyDeleteEmily Dickinson, as a woman, must have faced many difficulties in social life at that time. No matter in life or in society, women faced the greatest difficulties. However, I think the author still insists on realizing his wish in difficulties. No matter the wish is great or small in the eyes of others, it is the most important for him. Can bring their own life strength and hope.
GS60539 ZHANGLIPING