Symbol Analysis
Have you ever seen that movie About a Boy? Well, if this poem were turned into a movie, it would be called About a Bird. The entire poem is built on an extended metaphor that compares hope to a little bird, just hanging out in your soul. You know what else that bird does? It sings, belting out tunes nonstop to inspire us all. Put that way, maybe the title should be About a Bird… that Represents Hope's Inspirational Power in the Human Spirit. That's not exactly catchy, though.
- Lines 3-4: Here the hope-as-bird metaphor continues, with special attention to the bird's song. We get why there'd be no words to this song. After all, only the occasional parrot or cockatoo would be able to add lyrics. Still, the fact that the song is wordless also makes it universal. Hope is not something that can be restricted to any language. The bird's song is for everything, and—as we would like to think of hope—it's always there, inspiring us nonstop.
- Line 5: The bird's song is "sweetest" when the weather outside is most frightful. That checks out. Hope is most precious when we need it the most—namely, when life has served up a heaping platter of awfulness.
- Lines 9-10: The song can reach us anywhere, just like hope. The idea here is that, no matter where life takes you or how hard it gets, the song of hope can reach you. So… you've got that going for you, which is nice.