In the first and second stanzas, Dickinson uses imagery to describe the impending joy of Christmasstime and its revelers:

“Before the ice is in the pools,

Before the skaters go…”

In these stanzas, Dickinson uses the longer iambic tetrameter with four iambic feet, alternating with iambic trimeter. This gives a sense of playfulness to the sounds, accompanied by an A/B/C/B rhyme scheme.

In the third stanza, Dickinson signals a shift in the poem by shortening her meter, and moving from winter imagery to pensive reflection:

“What we touch the hems of

On a summer’s day;

What is only walking

Just a bridge away…”

Here, Dickinson is describing the moment between the changing season, where we can observe what lies ahead from where we stand. With one imaginary foot in summer and one in fall and winter, she continues with the A/B/C/B rhyme for continuity, showing that the passage of time is not interrupted.

Dickinson commonly includes questions to the reader, God, or the universe in her poetry, and here, she draws the attention toward herself, and asks,

“Will the frock I wept in

Answer me to wear?”

Perhaps she is asking whether her sadness, her grief, or her experiences will follow her into the future. She ends the poem on this question with a stressed syllable (“wear”), leaving the next line or thought to be completed by the reader — or the universe itself.

In this poem, the author talks about hope like a bird that lives in every person. It tales the bigger storm to kill this little creature and even in the coldest and in the most dangeorus situation this little bird can survive.

The poem numbered 1231 is composed by 3 stanzas, each made up of 4 lines. Love is the protagonist of those few lines: here the lover seems to be far, however in some part of the world the magic that led her to him seems to be tangible. In the first line of the second stanza she claims how she would pay everything that she has to be in a place where other indifferently play with something she’s eager for. There is only one thing she would preserve jealously: her right to eternity. To allow her to enjoy him in a time different from the one they are living in. Because of that she praises God to not curtail eternity because that is her only hope.

“Passive” has a double meaning:

The author approaches love from a multiple perspective even though her personal experience of love has been very bitter and disappointing, indeed all her romantic dreams proved to be very frustrating and painful. For Dickinson, unilateral love is never realized because it lacks emotional reciprocation.

To her, love is the supreme feeling in life: the realization of love gives us heavenly satisfaction. Moreover, "to be loved is Heaven". Love is evergreen and does not expire with the passage of time, is the affirmation of life and not an escape from it. It is not a saleable object and is vital for life: it awakens us to the real realities of life. Love is a powerful liberating force which helps the soul to enjoy the bliss of life. It is indeed the essence of life.

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -

Yet - never - in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me.

La speranza è un ciuffo di piume —

Che si appollaia nell'anima —

E canta un'aria senza parola —

E non si ferma — mai —

 

E che dolcemente — nella Burrasca — si sente —

Ed ha dovuto graffiarsi la gola la tempesta —

Che seppe imbarazzare l'Uccellino

Che riscaldasse tanta gente —

 

L'ho sentito nei deserti ghiacciati —

E sopra il mare la più strana —

Già, anche negli estremi,

Non mi ha mai chiesto una briciola — di Me.



SUMMARY:

Throughout "Hope is the Thing with Feathers", the narrator perceives hope as a bird that resides inside humans. It persists dutifully without a break, singing constantly. Using metaphor, she emphasizes it sings vigorously during a hurricane, requiring a heavy storm to lay the bird in peace. As for the speaker, this bird never wavers by her side in the coldest of lands and strangest of seas, yet it never demanded a breadcrumb, singing away merrily.



COMMENT:

The poem follows a rhyme scheme of 
ABCB, conforming to the pattern of a ballad. In the poem Dickinson expresses her awareness of the immense dignity and the importance of human soul, every human needs hope because it's what we need in order to find a reason and continue living even when we're feeling down. 

The poetess uses the image of a bird to show the abstract idea of hope, feathers represent hope because they allow us to fly, to be free and happy. Hope is compared to a small bird that sings a tune even in the most powerful storm, this metaphor means that hope doesn't speak to us in a conventional way: it's a feeling we get, not always rational, which helps us to overcome difficulties.  

Hope is always within us despite our troubles, it's an helper who doesn't remand anything in return; hope exists for all of us, its song can be heard over the strangests seas, coldest lands and in the worst storms. Hope rests in our souls as a bird rests on its perch even in the darkest times, such as despair; hope is a force wich endures in humans even when there is no reason to be hopeful.     

(1862)


This poem expresses the concept of the uniformity of the multitude: who is similar to other people is considered a good person, who is different is considered mad and dangerous. 
But actually, who can go beyond the surface and against the crowd, has a divine sense.