Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.
Line 5
And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -
- This new stanza picks up where the last one left off. The fancy poetic term for that is enjambment.
- And the idea that it continues is this: the hope-bird is always singing, and it sounds "sweetest" when there's bad weather going on. (A "gale" is a strong wind.)
- Now, why would a bird be singing sweetly in the middle of bad weather? Most birds we know would be battening down their nests.
- Well, if this song is still tied metaphorically to hope (and it is), then the idea here is that, when things are at their roughest, that's when hope is at its most beautiful.
- That checks out, right? When everything is falling apart, sometimes you only have hope left. That makes hope a pretty special thing.
- Lucky for us, that bird never stops singing.
Lines 6-8
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm -
- Here the speaker elaborates on her idea from line 5.
- Yes, the hope-bird sings most sweetly when things are rough. You know what else? Things have to be really rough to dim the power of that music.
- Line 6 describes a "sore" storm. No, it hasn't just stubbed its toe. "Sore" can also mean severe or intense.
- The idea, then, is that the storm would have to be really awful for it to "abash" our hope-bird.
- "Abash" can mean to embarrass, but it can also mean to disconcert or make nervous.
- So, for anything to lessen the power of this hope-bird's sweet singing—a force that has helped so many people ("kept so many warm")—things would have to be really, awfully, just super-bad… like Jar-Jar Binks in Star Wars bad. We're talking seriously… bad here, folks.