Word Choice in ‘”Hope” is the Thing with Feathers’ In Emily Dickinson’s “’Hope’ is the Thing with Feathers” she uses several syntactical devises to broaden the possibilities of the context. Examples of syntactical devises used by Emily Dickinson are; inserting an abstract word where a concrete word is expected, switching these by inserting an image in a sentence instead of an abstract word, and use of the latter devise (“explanation of”). The first unusual word choice can be noticed in both the title of the poem, and in the first line. “’Hope” is the thing with feathers” (Ln 1) Emily Dickinson’s intentions when putting the word hope in quotations was to give a signal that the word is either used in an uncommon way or that the word itself