Hope is a strange invention

“Hope is a strange invention” is an eight-line poem composed of two stanzas of four lines each. Each line is relatively the same length, and each line alternates between one of iambic trimeter and one written in iambic trimeter with an extra unstressed syllable on the end. An iamb is a unit of poetry, a poetic “foot,” consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. For example, the first two lines read, “Hope is a strange invention— / A Patent of the Heart—” (Lines 1-2). This alternation between true iambic trimeter and iambic trimeter with the extra syllable allows readers to settle into a regular rhythm while reading, one that is familiar with a “sing-song” rhythm, almost like a nursery rhyme. This regular meter emphasizes hope’s constant “unremitting action” (Line 3) and “unique momentum” (Line 7). In this sense, the poem’s form matches its content.

About half of the lines end with a dash; this allows readers to pause and take a breath when they reach the end of the line. These dashes occur in three out of the four lines in the first stanza and in the last line of the poem. The use of dashes separates the poem into inaction and action, motion and lack of motion; perhaps even imitating hope’s “unique momentum” (Line 7).

Lastly, for rhyme scheme, Dickinson’s poem does not follow a regular pattern. In the first stanza, the first and third lines feature syllabic rhyme, which is “When the last syllable of rhyming words doesn’t contain identical stressed vowels but still sounds the same” (“Rhyme.” SuperSummary). In the first line, the “-ion” of “invention” matches with that in “action” in Line 3. The second stanza features masculine rhyme, or, “rhymes that occur only on the stressed final syllables of the rhyming words” (“Rhyme.” SuperSummary), such as “known” (Line 6) and “own” (Line 8). The alternating rhyme propels the reader from one line to the next, keeping momentum despite the occasional hard stop.