4. A famous classical poet has said that the aim of literature is ‘to teach and to delight’. In the work ONE poet you have studied, examine some poems where both of these aims (instruction and something that pleases the reader) have been included, and show how that has been achieved.
“‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers” by Emily Dickinson is an example of her teaching her readers to have hope, and also entertaining us with clever rhyme schemes and a song-like meter.
Emily Dickinson wants her readers to move forward with hope in their souls. She writes “Hope...” “never stops at all,” indicating that Hope is strong. Perhaps the best example of her teaching is the line “and sore must be the storm - / That could abash the little bird” She is saying something very deep there, while disguising it in sweet poetry. Hope is too strong to be hurt by any storm, and we, the readers, should know that hope will always be there. The last stanza also has some important meanings and teachings about hope. “I’ve heard it in the chillest land - / And on the strangest Sea - “ are two examples of contrasting extremes in which we, the readers, can find hope. We know we can because the speaker, who is introduced in these lines, does themselves. “Chillest” and “strangest” are two descriptive words that make it very clear that these environments are fairly extreme. The last two lines “Yet - never - in Extremity, / It asked a crumb - of me.” are deeply personal, but the reader can learn from them as well. The newly introduced speaker tells us that despite the “chillest land” and “strangest sea,” despite these “extremities”, the little bird - hope- has never asked for anything in return. The reader can always look towards hope and know it will be there.
There is also a lot of fun, entertainment aspects of this poem. The first is the meter, which is mostly determined by the syllable pattern. The lines alternate between 6 and 8 syllables each, except for the first, which is only 7. This makes the first line stand out, and read nearly like a title. The alternating pattern in the rest of the lines give the poem a “bouncy” tone and it sounds very spring-like. It is also easy to read and understand, because it is simple to predict. She also has a rhyme scheme, slant rhyme in the first stanza, alternating in the second, and alternating different syllables in the last. This pattern almost makes it sound child-like, but also very sweet. Again, the flow of the lines can be predicted and read very easily. The dashes at the end and between lines certainly helps with the meter of the poem as well. Since this poem, like a lot of her others, was made into a song, it is easy to see how the flow of it was written for entertainment purposes. In addition, throughout the poem, there is this metaphor of a bird. While this is used for teaching purposes, it ties the entire thing together very nicely. The references start with the obvious - “thing with feathers,” “perches” “sings the tune without the words.” They then become a little more obscure: “in the Gale” “asked a crumb” or “Extremity,” which can mean a location but also your fingers, which you feed and hold birds with. The usage of words like “sweetest” “sings” and “little” are very positive, and give that poem its positive vibe.
(For some reason this posted as a draft last night and not a blog post?? But it’s up now. obviously.)
