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The Second Great Awakening

The Second Great Awakening was a Protestant religious revival that occurred in the early 19th century in the United States. Like the First Great Awakening, which had taken place half a century before, the Second Great Awakening was characterized by a spirit of religious fervor. This spirit represented an “awakening” from the rationalism that had predominated in the 18th century, particularly as this form of rationalism had affected American religious life. The Unitarian Church, which held sway in major cities like Boston, had disposed of the more “fanciful” aspects of Christian theology, including the Trinitarian belief in a triune God. Dickinson, who grew up in a Calvinist community, was swept up by the Second Great Awakening in her youth. In her adult years, she grew to question the beliefs she’d been taught, and eventually she rejected all organized religion. Even so, her religious background deeply influenced her writing. For one thing, her poetry is infused with metaphysical curiosity, as in this case where Dickinson speculates about a metaphysical–metaphorical bird of hope that “perches” in the human soul. For another thing, Dickinson adopts a deceptively-simple “homiletic” style inspired by Unitarian preachers, as suggested by the way she opens this poem in the most straightforward way possible: a definition (“‘Hope’ is . . .”).

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