Look at extracts of Online Emily Dickinson’s biography.

Then ask students questions

concerning facts about Dickinson mentioned on the biography page.
Questions:
1. What was Emily’s father like? (strict & aloof)
2. What sort of reading materials did Emily’s father forbid Emily to read?
3. What’s Emily’s relationship with her father?
Hope is The Thing with Feathers
Q1: Read the title again. What does the phrase “the thing with feathers” remind you
of? What do you think the poet compares hope to?
Q2: What words in the stanza help establish the imagery of hope as a bird?
(feathers; perch; sing)
Q3: What’s its rhyme scheme? (押韻格式)
Q4: Which two lines in the poem (1) tell us what the bird does?
(2) describe how the bird reacts to hardship?
(3) tell us where it can be found?
(4) say hope is a free gift that exists for all of us?
Q5: By comparing hope to a bird, what effects have the poet achieved? Discuss the
similarities and differences bw these two. (animate vs inanimate; enables you to fly;
the image of flying away to a new beginning, a new hope.)

If I can stop one heart from breaking

This has to do with the inevitable assumption that one's life is determined by the good
they have done on earth. The meaning of one's life is to leave a trace, an unmistakable
mark of their existence. If by some small token she has changed the world, be it
making a friend smile or helping a robin to a nest, then she has done her part as a
piece of the world, and she has not lived in vain. That's it - literally.
To me she is saying that if you help someone or make a difference in someones life,
you won't live in vain..

living in vain means to live uselessly or to live your life being conceited. She's saying
that if she can stop a heart from being in pain and etc she will be useful and she
doesn't just think about her self.

The mood is mainly sad and thoughtful.