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Dickinson’s Poetry

For insight into how “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers” fits in with other key poetic works by Dickinson, consult this guide.

John Keats, “Ode to a Nightingale”

For another poem that famously attends to the song of a bird, check out Keats’s extraordinary “Ode to a Nightingale.” Though arguably much simpler in its themes than Keats’s poem, “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers” nonetheless develops the symbol of birdsong in similarly surprising ways.

Maya Angelou, “Caged Bird”

“Caged Bird” provides an interesting counterpoint to Dickinson’s poem. Whereas Dickinson centers birdsong as a symbol of hope, Angelou’s caged bird sings a symbolic song of sorrow. Yet despite this difference, both poems take birds as metaphorical expressions of how humans navigate adverse conditions.

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