Hope Is A Subtle Glutton' Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCDC EBFB| A | |
| - | |
| Hope is a subtle Glutton | B |
| He feeds upon the Fair | C |
| And yet inspected closely | D |
| What Abstinence is there | C |
| - | |
| His is the Halcyon Table | E |
| That never seats but One | B |
| And whatsoever is consumed | F |
| The same amount remain | B |
Emily Dickinson
(1)
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Irina T.: Hope here, unlike Dickinson's earlier poem where hope is given wings and flies, is portrayed as greedy and parasitical with a heavy underlying tone of religious fervor in ' he feeds upon the fair'. He is much closer to a medieval depiction of one of the cardinal sins than to the romantic uplifting vision of a bird. His insatiable appetite leaves no room for hope: indeed, he pervades every area of the self leaving no room for other emotions. However, unlike the poem ' Hope' is the Thing with Feathers' where the pervasive element of hope is seen as positive, with the wordless bird song that never stops and the altruistic sense of it never asking anything in return, here it is cloaked in an insatiable appetite that is treated in a more jaded fashion by the poet, as in the lines "And yet-inspected closely/ what abstinence is there." The upbeat tone of the earlier poem is here yielded to an ominous underlying fear that his insatiable appetite will ultimately swallow up any other feelings thus threatening the freedom of being able to savor the wide range of emotions humanity can tap into. It becomes a blanket that ,cast over all other sensations, suffocates them and in its voracity renders the individual stupid in as much as they are unable to see beyond such myopic optimism.
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