Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
Unidentified first-person speaker.
Form and Meter
The poem consists of three stanzas, using alternating lines of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter. In the second and fourth line of each stanza there is slant rhyme.
Metaphors and Similes
The whole poem is a metaphor for the persistence of hope.
Alliteration and Assonance
The lines "And on the strangest Sea" and "sore must be the storm" use alliteration in their S sounds.
Irony
N/A
Genre
Lyric poetry, nature poetry
Setting
The setting is in nature, during stormy conditions.
Tone
The tone of the poem is softly optimistic.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist of the poem is "hope," allegorized as the little bird, and the antagonist is the storm.
Major Conflict
The major conflict is between the bird and the storm.
Climax
The climax of the poem is the end of the poem, where the bird triumphantly survives the harsh weather.
Foreshadowing
The first stanza foreshadows the endurance of the bird.
Understatement
N/A
Allusions
Dickinson's use of bird imagery is an allusion to the Christian symbolism of doves.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
N/A
Personification
Hope is personified in the bird's song.
Hyperbole
N/A
Onomatopoeia
N/A
