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Hope

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.

TPCASTT

Title: Hope

Paraphrase: The poem is about a bird, that perches on a tree with the most positive outlook. Nothing can bring it down, but storm.  It remains loyal and independent.

Connotation: Hope is the bird that perches on the tree.

Attitude: Positive and uplifting, until the switch with the storm.

Shift: storm

Title(revisited): bird is symbolism of hope

Theme: Hope gives strength and perseverance through the toughest situations. Even when you don't think it will be there, it is.

Richard Cory

Whenever Richard Cory went down town,

We people on the pavement looked at him:

He was a gentleman from sole to crown,

Clean favored, and imperially slim.

And he was always quietly arrayed,

And he was always human when he talked;

But still he fluttered pulses when he said,

'Good-morning,' and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich - yes, richer than a king -

And admirably schooled in every grace:

In fine, we thought that he was everything

To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked, and waited for the light,

And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;

And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,

Went home and put a bullet through his head. 

Edwin Arlington Robinson

TPCASTT

Title: Richard Cory

Paraphrase:Richard Cory was a rich man and role model among the people. In the shift of the poem he killed himself with a bullet to his head.

Connotation: "glittered when he walked" shows how much admiration there was for him among people. "waited for the light" shows that the people just wanted more happiness in their lives and wanted people to be like the old Richard Cory.

Shift: "Went home and put a bullet through his head." Everyone admired Richard Cory, but in the end he kills himself.

Theme: Sometimes by separating someone from the rest of society, we make them feel alone.