Sunday, March 28, 2010

Hope

Thanks to UK author, Justine Picardie , for this. How exquisite it is. Love the alignment of hope with a bird.

“Hope” is the thing with feathers - 
by Emily Dickinson

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -
And on the strangest Sea -
Yet - never - in Extremity,
It asked a crumb - of me.

From The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, edited by Thomas H. Johnson. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Found on the excellent  Poetry Foundation website . Worth a visit. 

3 comments:

Elisabeth said...

Just beautiful, just plain beautiful, the image and the verse.

You cannot go past Emily Dickinson for the wisest and most wonderful of words. To use a cliche, they set my heart a flutter. Thanks for posting it.

Jim Murdoch said...

How wrong Emily Dickinson was! Hope is not "the thing with feathers". The thing with feathers has turned out to be my nephew. I must take him to a specialist in Zurich. - Woody Allen

Rachel Fenton said...

Deja vu!

This poem's start always reminds me of the first line from "Martian Sends a Postcard Home"...