“"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 — ”
254: "Hope" is the thing with feathers —
The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson (1960)
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Emily Dickinson187
American poet 1830–1886Related quotes
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Context: There is a singer everyone has heard,
Loud, a mid-summer and a mid-wood bird,
Who makes the solid tree trunks sound again.
He says that leaves are old and that for flowers
Mid-summer is to spring as one to ten.
He says the early petal-fall is past
When pear and cherry bloom went down in showers
On sunny days a moment overcast;
And comes that other fall we name the fall.
He says the highway dust is over all.
The bird would cease and be as other birds
But that he knows in singing not to sing.
The question that he frames in all but words
Is what to make of a diminished thing.