The Thing with Feathers
The primary character in the poem is the winged creature described in the title. The phrase "a thing with feathers" makes the reader imagine a bird. Hope is described as a bird that perches in the human soul and sings a song that never stops, even under the greatest duress. In fact, the speaker notes, it is at the moments when optimism seems to flicker in the cold winds of a dark storm that the bird’s song is sweetest.
The Speaker
The speaker does not become an active participant in the poem until the third stanza when the objective language of the first two stanzas gives way to personal pronouns. The first word of this stanza is “I’ve” and the final word is “me.” The speaker becomes an active agent by asserting that she has heard the sound of this hope and felt its warmth in the coldest lands and in the strangest seas. The speaker ends the poem by acknowledging that hope is always there for her, singing its song, especially when that song is most necessary. Never, in the speaker's experience, has the thing with feathers asked for anything in return.
