Emily Dickinson was a prolific poet, but most of her 1800 works remained undiscovered during her lifetime. After her death, her sister Lavinia found a cache of her work and set about publishing the poems, with their unconventional punctuation and capitalization, and their themes of loss, love, death and immortality.
“Hope” is the thing with feathers - (314)
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.