Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,

And sings the tune without the words,

And never stops at all,



And sweetest in the gale is heard;

And sore must be the storm

That could abash the little bird

That kept so many warm.



I've heard it in the chillest land,

And on the strangest sea:

Yet, never, in extremity,

It asked a crumb of me.

–“Hope is the thing with feathers,”
Emily Dickinson

Consider the word choice in the second stanza, and then answer the questions.

The denotation of gale is “a strong wind.” What is the connotation of gale as it is used in the second stanza of the poem?



How would the poem’s meaning change if Dickinson had used the word breeze instead?