Emily Dickinson's "Hope" is the Thing With Feathers

The expressive diction used by Emily Dickinson in "Hope" is the Thing With Feathers expresses the complex meaning of hope.  Dickinson explains hope to "sing the tune without the words."  By personifying hope, Dickinson has made it to be something tangible, more than just an emotion, but something that can be seen and heard.  She goes on to say that "sore must be the storm that could abash the little Bird that kept so many warm."  The storm may be a person of ill intent, killing the hope in the people that rely on it to get through life.  Dickinson also states that hope "never ... asked a crumb" of her.  Meaning that, though hope can be the greatest comfort to anyone in a bad situation, it will never want anything back.  The descriptive diction used by Dickinson illustrates that hope is more that just an emotion.