American poet, Emily Dickinson, wrote many great poems throughout her life. During her life, five of her poems got published in the Springfield Republican. By 1890, the first book of Dickinson's work was published. However like many famous poets, many of her poems weren't published until after her death. After her death, her sister found over 1,700 of Emily's poems. Of these many poems written by Emily Dickinson, many have been passed on for deeper analysis. Three of these are, "I'm Nobody! Who are you?", "Hope is the Thing With Feathers", and "Papa above". .
"I'm Nobody! Who are you?" is a poem about someone who considers their self nobody. This nobody-ness means that she is outside the public sphere. Here Dickinson is touching on her own failure to become a published poet. Thus said, most of the society looks at her as "nobody", since her poetry is not published. "I'm Nobody! Who are you?" is an example of a comical poem. As this poem may be comical, at the same point it is a serious poem. Emily Dickinson wrote this poem during her time of failure to become a poet. If she had not listened to Thomas Higginson, she could have been "somebody" instead of "nobody". After her death, her poems were published, and Dickinson became a famous poet. .
Because Emily Dickinson lived most of her life inside, her poetry reflects her inner struggles. "Hope is the Thing With Feathers" is a poem where Dickinson is creating a metaphor of hope through a bird. The hope is much like a bird that continues to fly within her. Hope offers encouragement through the dark times that we may go through in our lives. For the speaker, hope stays present, always singing, always flying. The second stanza shows that hope can become strong in a storm. Hope as a bird ("the thing with feathers") perches within the soul and there it sings. Hope is always there no matter what kind of situation you are in, so always have hope.
