Answer: In the poem " 'Hope' is the thing with feathers" Emily Dickinson is trying to tell the reader to never give up, even when times are hard. In the opening stanza she says, "Hope is the thing with feathers/that perches in the soul/and sings the tune without the words/and never stops at all. In this stanza she tells the reader to keep going even when one doesn't know what is ahead in life. Even if things are unclear, like a song without words, hope makes things possible. Dickinson uses the metaphor of a songbird to explain this need for humans to keep hoping even through dark and desperate times. The songbird with "feathers/that perches in the soul" symbolizes this message to keep going and to be resilient no matter what challenge you might face.