15 pages • 30 minutes read
Hope is a strange invention
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Symbols & Motifs
Heart
The heart has symbolically represented love, passion, and sentimentality. From the ancient Egyptian belief in the ib, or the “metaphysical heart,” to the anatomical understanding of the organ by the ancient Greeks and Romans, to the medieval concept of courtly love, humans have always been obsessed with the heart as the seat of emotion. The speaker in Dickinson’s poem specifically identifies hope as “A Patent of the Heart” (Line 2). This implies that hope is a direct derivative of the heart. Because hope comes from this center of passion, it therefore has emotion as its primary source. Hope comes directly from feeling and expression. By relating hope to the heart, the poem indicates the necessity of hope to the human condition.
Invention
The act of “invention” refers to bringing ideas or objects together in a new way to create something that previously did not exist. Invention implies the formation of something new using creativity. If hope is an act of invention, then it is an attempt by the person feeling it to bring together all of their desires and aspirations into a single emotion. The individual experiencing the sensation of hope attempts to create something that was not before in existence—motivation towards a desired outcome. While on the one hand, hope is identified by the poem’s speaker as existing in the heart (therefore making it naturally occurring), it also is unnatural in the sense that it is fabricated or constructed. While people might have some innate predisposition to “hope,” this symbolism of “invention” alludes to the effort that must be put into maintaining this abstraction. This effort comes from the heart itself, from an individual’s passions that endlessly fuel hope.
Electric/Electricity
By referring to something as “electric,” writers and speakers often mean that something is “charged.” This could mean charged with electricity itself, or it could be charged with feeling and emotion. “Electricity” is a basic form of energy. Referring to hope as an “electric Adjunct” (Line 5) symbolizes hope’s powerful and sustaining force. Hope is its own form of energy, coming from the heart and maintaining its own vitality through constant implementation. Hope, as an “Adjunct” (Line 5), is an ancillary component of the heart, electrified with vitality that further feeds its aspirations and dreams.
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By Emily Dickinson
