Thursday, February 18, 2010
Hope is the Thing With Feathers
submitted by student - In the poem "Hope is the Thing With Feathers" by Emily Dickinson, hope is portrayed as an animal, a bird. Why do you think hope is portrayed as a bird and what is the significance of the lines..."Yet, never, in extremity, / It asked a crumb of me"?
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I think hope is a bird because of what you think of when you think "bird". The first things that come to mind for me are, "freedom, flying" I also thought, by the way it said that her hope "never asked a crumb of her" that it was a dove because of the sense of pureness and giving, and earlier in the poem it mentioned it perching in "the soul" which made me envision a dove also. So i think that the bird was supposed to make us think of things like that. As for the lines "Yet, never, in extremity, / It asked a crumb of me" is just that it is always hope is pure and gives without taking. Nothing bad can come from hoping for something better. So I think that line meant that hope helps but doesn't "ask for things in return" like affecting (effecting?) negatively.
I think hope was portrayed as the bird because birds have the freedom to go whereever they want and be free whenever they want. I think that is what the person in the story was hoping for or dreaming about, to feel free. I think the lines "Yet, never, in extremity,/It asked a crumb of me" means that hope is something that doesnt need anything from you, all you do is have to believe that everything will be okay and hope for the best and good things will happen.
I think it is portrayed as a bird because birds are small and delicate just like hope can be. Also i think the last two lines mean that even in the most desperate times hope never wanted anything from her but it would still give.
I think hope is portrayed as a bird because birds represent freedom and hope someetimes can set you free. Birds r the key to freedom and so is hope. I think the quote means that hope helped her bur it never asked her for anything in return. She knew she could always count on hope to be there yet it would never ask her for something in return.
I think hope is represented by a bird because a bird has a good figurative resemblance to hope. For example, in the poem it says a storm could abash the little bird. this is saying figuratively that hope can be weakened when something bad or discouraging happens. the bird is a good metaphor to use for describing hope which makes me believe that a bird was chosen because it has similar experiences and other common things with hope. I think the poem saying hope never asks in extremity a crumb of me means that even in the rarest event hope never requires anything in return for its service. I think the word "extremity" is showing that the notion of hope even asking for something in return would be a bizarre thing. hope not asking for a crumb in return shows me that hope requires nothing in return.
The bird can be symbolized as freedom. That could be the same reason the bald eagle is the our nations "symbol". The signifigance of those lines is hope never asks and always gives... but how can hope be given anything back anyway.
I think that hope is represented as a bird because birds are free to do as they please and fly where ever they want. Birds are lighthearted creatures wihout a care in the world. Hope is a lot alike. It goes everywhere and doesn't carry any hard feelings. I believe that the last line of the last stanza means that hope is selfless and helps anyone that needs it's assistance. The author is saying that hope is everywhere with everyone and it's never asked a thing from the author OR the other people it's helped.
I think hope is portrayed as a bird because birds symbolize freedom. They can fly to whereever they want. The line "but it never asked a crumb of her" means that hope is a free gift, it is part of the package of being human. It never asks for payment, you just need to put faith in it to make it strong against the challenges of life.
I belive that the signifigence of these lines means hope never asks anything of you you just ask something of it. This line is very signifigent in the poem
To me this means that hope has given so much and has always been there but has never asked anything in return. That shows how hope is strong and can stand on its own.
Regarding DanaK, I think that the bird is used as a representation of hope because it has a song and the bird is not actually representing hope and it is asctually the song of the bird. In the poem it says that the song of the bird is not heard always, but is always there even when there's a storm.
Sarahm
I think that Hope is portrayed as a bird in the poem because one thing that many people love about birds is their song;hearing this song doesn't alway mean that you can see the bird right in front of you, but it means that it is close by. In the poepm, the bird's song seemed to symbolize those signs of hope, like when it says"i HEARD IT in the chillest lands..." That sort of has the same sort of situation as the birdsong...you may not be able to see that hope right in the front of your mind, but there are things that help you to see that it is there, if you "listen." As for the lines mentioned in the question about that bird "never asking a crumb of me," I agree with what others have said about that meaning that even though the hope is there all the time, it never asks for anything in return. However, I had a question: What COULD hope ask for? what is the alternative to it never asking for anything? What CAN it ask for?
I think that the bird portrays hope in the poem because birds are usually something that is thought of as cheery or happy (Unless it is a bird like, a vulture, which I doubt is the type of bird being described in the poem), which is also thought of along with hope. My interpretation of the last two lines differ a little bit than what seems like everbody else thought. Since hope cannot really ask for anything, and if it could there would be nothing for it to ask for, I saw it as the author never having hope, or "a crumb" of hope. Sure, she may have " Heard it in the chillest land, and on the strangest sea," but that doesn't necessarily mean that it was her who had the hope. She may have seen another person who had hope.
I think that the bird portrays hope in this situation because like many others have said before when you think of a bird you usually think of flying and having freedom which many people on earth dream and hope about. When the poem said " It asked a crumb of me" i feel that the authorof this poem was saying she never had hope until she finally welcomed it because she never had hope before.
i am still wondering what hope COULD have asked for, like I mentioned in my last post...does anybody have any suggestions or ideas?
Responding to AF313, as I said in my last post (Which was coinicedentally also just beneath yours) I don't think that hope really can ask for anything. I don't literally mean it cannot physically talk to us and ask, which it obviously can't, but it just doesn't have something to ask for. I realize that I may not have provided the answer you may have been looking for, so if I am wrong about it not having anything to ask for, something that it could ask for may be for people to have hope, which would mean that in the last two lines the author would be saying that she did what hope was asking for (Having hope) without hope actually asking.
I definitely agree with JBruce now! ( and sorry for not catching that part of ur last post :0 ) that really does make sense, especially the part about hope getting her to hope without needing to ask for her to do so. Thanks for making that clearer to me! =D
I agree with Kitty. When ever I think of hope I think of flying high.I think that hope resembles a bird because generally doves symbolize hope and piece.The line means that it asks for favors however never angrily.
i Think the bird symbolizes hope because a bird gliding through the air is considered graceful and makes somebody in troubled times feel peaceful. If you looked up at say a red cardinal, you would feel good and relaxed.
Hope is symbolized as a bird because its something that is free and can go through some hardships while its looking for pray or flying in a storm,but sometimes its calm and peaceful, an thats like hope. When things get ruff people start to lose their hope but when everything is calm and clear you will win back your hope. I think that the scentence is saying that hope can never ask something from you you need to give to hope to beleive. However, hope is still there it just needs beleife to stand out.
A bird is a sign of hope because its cerp always makes people feel good. I like when i wake up on saterday and hear the birds cerp. it makes me feel that somthing good will happen.
I think a bird is the sign of hope because humans always want to fly and we never can but when we see the bird soaring threw the air it makes us think maybe sumday and gives us hope. I think that the last two lines in the poem mean that hope only needs a little thing such as a crumb to strive andkeep on going.
when i think of a bird, i think of freedom because of its ability to fly. Its able to fly anywhere in the world. Hope can do the same thing to people. Some people rely on hope and when its gone, it ruins people. Just like a bird without feathers. It won't be able to fly making it dull and not have any freedom.
When I first saw that line I thought mainly about hope. I thought, that because we all ask or beg for hope...sometimes we get what we asked for. When it says "Yet it never in extremity asked a crumb of me" I thought that it was showing how we all ask of hope, whereas hope never asks us to do anything. Like Mariana said, hope can never ask something from you, but you can believe and hope for something.
I agree with everyone here, how the poem says hope is free and it flies and it can be obtained by everyone. " Hope never asked a crumb of me" that means not even alittle it will ask for, you can take take but it will never ask for anythinng in return. The poem is great, not to mention very insperational.
When i first read the title "Hope is a thing with fethers",I though of a bird. Birds have feathers, so i immediately made the connection. I think Emily Dickinson related hope to a bird because a bird is free. It goes about without the help of others, and it can still be heard even if it isn't in front of you. Hope is like that. It cames and goes freely, and it can hide when you think you have "lost" hope. However, you can't loose hope. It will always be there. I think that scentince means that hope doesn't ask for anything in return of you, but you do have to belive in it in order to have it show.
i think they used a bird to symbolize the hope. for me a dove symbolizes faith and hope. and everyone has something that they think is hope for them. in those lines i think its trying to say it only asked for a little bit of the character.
Another reason it could be a bird is because they are very good companions. If you have ever had a pet bird, you know that they are very reliable when it comes to friendship. When it comes to hope, you need hope to be very reliable otherwise no one would have hope!
Again, I agree with what everyone is saying here about the meaning of the story but I wanted to comment on AF313's post about what hope can ask of you. I took some time to think about this and it stumped me too but now I might have an idea. (Maybe) With most things there are the advantages (what you gain) and disadvantages (what you lose). What would I lose from having hope? Well, just because you have hope doesn't mean what you desire has to come. People can hope for something all their lives and never get it, but sometimes the hope can twist and turn into anger and frustration. But in this poem hope never brought that to the poet. Hope kept coming and coming and nothing ever changed. Never did she have anything in return. --- Just a thought... let me know what you think.
i agree with what kendall said earlier. that a the thing with feathers (hope) is symbolizing a bird because it can fly freely and has complete freedom. also, I think the lines "Yet, never, in extremity,It asked a crumb of me" means that hope doesnt need anything back in return. in the world today, very few times you see someone give away something with value and not ask for anything in return. thats why the poet felt the need to write about it because he noticed that it doesnt happen often and that it is a great thing when you come across a giver.
to most people a bird represents freedon and hope is freedom. the quote means that hope never ask anything of you... sometimes you might ask for it.
she chose a bird because birds are a common symbol of hope. this is because birds fly and many people associate flying with freedom and safety. for example, in the hunger games they use a mokingjay for a symbol of hope.
I think that the bird is also a sign of hope because birds may express many things. When my grandma died i would always see cardinals flying all over the place because a cardinal was her favorite bird. I also took this as a sign of hope because everytime i saw acardinal good things would end happening. I think in the poem the bird expresses a symbol of hope because emily dickinson wants to be hopes to be free and joyful just like a bird. She may also want peace between her and something or someone and she is using a brid as an example.
i think it is shown as a bird because birds symbolize freedom and happyness. when you think of a bird you picture a thing flying in the sky for no reason.
I agree with the majoroty of bloggers and say that the bird does repersent hope. Regarding to the main question , i think that even in the most of extreme times hope is always there and it doesn't ask anything of you. It's just there to help i guess.
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