Practice Essay

Emily Dickinson tends to write her poems with an ambiguous structure. She often leaves it up to the reader to interpret the meanings of her poems and to conceptualize what is going on.  There are often many different conclusions that one can draw. Although not everyone of her poems are ambiguous, "Hope" by Emily Dickinson is very open ended. She  leaves it largely up to the readers of interpret the meaning of the poem by drawing connections between two different things.
    In the poem Emily Dickinson relates hope to a bird. She draws a connection between them, which can be interpreted by the reader in different ways. In line one she says "Hope is like a feather." This sentence in particular is very ambiguous. People can look at this in several ways. On one hand it can mean hope is like a bird. A bird is light and free. It gets to live easy. So, hope is free and hope comes at no cost. It has "never asked a crumb of me." (Line 9) Meaning, it is something people do on there own that they do by choice, and it is up to them. Nothing made you hope, but you do it all the time. It always is there, because it  "perches in you soul." (Line 2) There is always hope inside of you, whether you like it or not. It's sits there and waits. She continues and says, "I've seen it in the chilliest lands/And on the strangest seas." (Line 7, line 8) this relates back to the comparison of the bird, it means that hope can be found anywhere you just need to look. It is found in the land and the sea. This is comparing the bird to hope in a positive way. It gives the poem and optimistic tone, and the relief hope is always with you.
     On the other hand, it can mean hope can come and go, just like a feather. Instead of thinking of a bird as free and never stopping, you can think of a bird coming and going. Just like a bird migrating from place to place.  It comes in and out of people's lives and is in the "land" and "sea." Hope doesn't always have to be present, and you don't have to feel it. "It sings the tune without the words," means it is silent and sometimes it disappears. This interpretation has a slightly negative spin to it. Which, affects the tone of the poem, which is now melancholy. By changing the interpretation, you are also changing the mood that he poem gives off.
     These are only some of the ways to interpret the poem. Emily Dickinson makes every line open ended, which allows the entire poem to be ambiguous. She uses open ended words such as "perches," "tune", and "feathers," when she is making connections. This allows different meanings to be understood. Depending on the type of person you are, you can understand different connections differently, and therefore take away separate conclusions. She does that the poem is relatable and has different emotions that belong with it. Therefore, more people can draw connections, and try to relate it to a situation or in general what they believe hope to be.