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The Literal Interpretation Of Hope Is The Thing With Feathers

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Emily Dickinson’s poem “Hope is the thing with feathers” has been a cornerstone in American poetry for over a century. This 12-line poem is full of imagery that compares hope to a resilient bird. The most literal interpretation of this poem leaves the reader imagining hope as winged and singing, as in the lines “Hope…perches in the soul,/And sings the tune without the words.” The literal interpretation of hope as a bird could continue, but what Dickinson communicates about hope, however, is that it resembles a bird more figuratively in the qualities it possesses. Comparing hope to this bird highlights that hope is resilient and selfless. When Dickinson writes “I’ve heard it in the chillest land,/And on the strangest sea,” she means that hope,

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