"Hope" is the thing with feathers in  General  General   

"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.

By Emily Dickinson

Tell Your Friends About It | Print This Poem

Comments

You should be logged in to be able to leave comments

Other poems by Emily Dickinson:

• "And with what body do they come?" --
• "Arcturus" is his other name
• "Faith" is a fine invention
• "Faithful to the end" Amended
• "Go tell it" -- What a Message --
• "Go travelling with us!"
• "Heaven" -- is what I cannot reach!
• "Heaven" has different Signs -- to me --
• "Heavenly Father" -- take to thee
• "Hope" is the thing with feathers
• "Houses" -- so the Wise Men tell me
• "I want" -- it pleaded -- All its life --
• "Lethe" in my flower,
• "Morning" -- means "Milking" -- to the Farmer
• "Nature" is what we see --
• "Red Sea," indeed!  Talk not to me
• "Remember me" implored the Thief!
• "Secrets" is a daily word
• "Sic transit gloria mundi"
• "Sown in dishonor"!
• "Speech" -- is a prank of Parliament --
• "They have not chosen me," he said,
• "Tomorrow" -- whose location
• "Unto Me?"  I do not know you --
• "Was not" was all the Statement.
• "Why do I love" You, Sir?
• A Bee his burnished Carriage
• A Bird came down the Walk
• A Burdock -- clawed my Gown
• A Cap of Lead across the sky
• A Charm invests a face
• A chilly Peace infests the Grass
• A Clock stopped
• A Cloud withdrew from the Sky
• A Coffin -- is a small Domain,
• A Counterfeit -- a Plated Person --
• A curious Cloud surprised the Sky,
• A darting fear -- a pomp -- a tear
• A Day! Help! Help! Another Day!
• A Death blow is a Life blow to Some
• A Deed knocks first at Thought
• A Dew sufficed itself --
• A Diamond on the Hand
• A Dimple in the Tomb
• A Door just opened on a street --
• A doubt if it be Us
• A Drop Fell on the Apple Tree --
• A Drunkard cannot meet a Cork
• A Dying Tiger -- moaned for Drink --
• A face devoid of love or grace,
• A faded Boy -- in sallow Clothes
• A feather from the Whippoorwill
• A Field of Stubble, lying sere
• A first Mute Coming --
• A Flower will not trouble her, it has so small a F
• A full fed Rose on meals of Tint
• A fuzzy fellow, without feet,
• A great Hope fell
• A happy lip -- breaks sudden
• A House upon the Height
• A Lady red -- amid the Hill
• A lane of Yellow led the eye
• A Letter is a joy of Earth --
• A Light exists in Spring
• A little bread -- a crust -- a crumb
• A little Dog that wags his tail
• A little East of Jordan,
• A little Madness in the Spring
• A little overflowing word
• A little Road -- not made of Man --
• A little Snow was here and there
• A long -- long Sleep -- A famous -- Sleep --
• A loss of something ever felt I --
• A Man may make a Remark --
• A Mien to move a Queen
• A Mine there is no Man would own
• A Moth the hue of this
• A Murmur in the Trees -- to note
• A narrow Fellow in the Grass
• A nearness to Tremendousness --
• A Night -- there lay the Days between
• A Pang is more conspicuous in Spring
• A Pit -- but Heaven over it --
• A Planted Life -- diversified
• A poor -- torn heart -- a tattered heart
• A Prison gets to be a friend --
• A prompt -- executive Bird is the Jay --
• A Rat surrendered here
• A Route of Evanescence
• A Saucer holds a Cup
• A science -- so the Savants say,
• A Secret told
• A sepal, petal, and a thorn
• A Shade upon the mind there passes
• A shady friend -- for Torrid days
• A Sickness of this World it most occasions
• A single Clover Plank
• A single Screw of Flesh
• A slash of Blue
• A Sloop of Amber slips away
• A soft Sea washed around the House
• A solemn thing -- it was -- I said
• A Solemn thing within the Soul
• A South Wind -- has a pathos
• A Sparrow took a Slice of Twig
• A Spider sewed at Night
• A stagnant pleasure like a Pool
• A still -- Volcano -- Life --
• A Thought went up my mind today --
• A throe upon the features
• A Toad, can die of Light --
• A Tongue -- to tell Him I am true!
• A Tooth upon Our Peace
• A train went through a burial gate,
• A transport one cannot contain
• A Visitor in Marl
• A Weight with Needles on the pounds
• A Wife -- at daybreak I shall be
• A wild Blue sky abreast of Winds
• A Wind that rose
• A winged spark doth soar about --
• A Word dropped careless on a Page
• A word is dead
• A Word made Flesh is seldom
• A World made penniless by that departure
• A Wounded Deer -- leaps highest
• Abraham to kill him --
• Absence disembodies -- so does Death
• Absent Place -- an April Day --
• Adrift! A little boat adrift!
• Afraid!  Of whom am I afraid?
• After a hundred years
• After all Birds have been investigated and laid as
• After great pain, a formal feeling comes
• After the Sun comes out
• Again -- his voice is at the door --
• Ah, Moon -- and Star!
• Ah, Necromancy Sweet!
• Ah, Teneriffe!
• Air has no Residence, no Neighbor,
• All but Death, can be Adjusted --
• All Circumstances are the Frame
• All forgot for recollecting
• All I may, if small,
• All men for Honor hardest work
• All overgrown by cunning moss,
• All that I do
• All the letters I can write
• All these my banners be.
• All things swept sole away
• Alone and in a Circumstance
• Alone, I cannot be
• Alter! When the Hills do --
• Although I put away his life
• Always Mine!
• Ambition cannot find him.
• Ample make this Bed --
• An altered look about the hills
• An antiquated Grace
• An Antiquated Tree
• An honest Tear
• An Hour is a Sea
• An ignorance a Sunset
• And this of all my Hopes
• Angels, in the early morning
• Answer July
• Apology for Her
• Apparently with no surprise
• Are Friends Delight or Pain?
• Arrows enamored of his Heart --
• Art thou the thing I wanted?
• Artists wrestled here!
• As by the dead we love to sit,
• As Children bid the Guest "Good Night"
• As Everywhere of Silver
• As far from pity, as complaint
• As from the earth the light Balloon
• As Frost is best conceived
• As if I asked a common Alms
• As if some little Arctic flower
• As if the Sea should part
• As imperceptibly as Grief
• As old as Woe --
• As One does Sickness over
• As plan for Noon and plan for Night
• As Sleigh Bells seem in summer
• As subtle as tomorrow
• As Summer into Autumn slips
• As the Starved Maelstrom laps the Navies
• As Watchers hang upon the East,
• As we pass Houses musing slow
• Ashes denote that Fire was --
• At Half past Three, a single Bird
• At last, to be identified!
• At least -- to pray -- is left -- is left --
• At leisure is the Soul
• Aurora is the effort
• Autumn -- overlooked my Knitting --
• Awake ye muses nine
• Away from Home are some and I --
• Back from the cordial Grave I drag thee
• Baffled for just a day or two
• Banish Air from Air --
• Be Mine the Doom --
• Beauty -- be not caused -- It Is --
• Beauty crowds me till I die
• Because He loves Her
• Because I could not stop for Death --
• Because my Brook is fluent
• Because that you are going
• Because the Bee may blameless hum
• Bees are Black, with Gilt Surcingles --
• Before He comes we weigh the Time!
• Before I got my eye put out
• Before the ice is in the pools
• Before you thought of Spring
• Behind Me -- dips Eternity --
• Behold this little Bane --
• Belshazzar had a Letter --
• Bereaved of all, I went abroad --
• Bereavement in their death to feel
• Besides the Autumn poets sing
• Besides this May
• Best Things dwell out of Sight
• Best Witchcraft is Geometry
• Betrothed to Righteousness might be
• Better -- than Music! For I -- who heard it --
• Between My Country -- and the Others --
• Between the form of Life and Life
• Bind me -- I still can sing --
• Birthday of but a single pang
• Blazing in Gold and quenching in Purple
• Bless God, he went as soldiers,
• Bliss is the plaything of the child --
• Bloom -- is Result -- to meet a Flower
• Bloom upon the Mountain -- stated --
• Blossoms will run away,
• Bound -- a trouble
• Bring me the sunset in a cup,
• Brother of Ingots -- Ah Peru --
• But little Carmine hath her face --
• By a departing light
• By a flower -- By a letter
• By Chivalries as tiny,
• By homely gift and hindered Words
• By my Window have I for Scenery
• By such and such an offering
• Candor -- my tepid friend --
• Circumference thou Bride of Awe
• Civilization -- spurns -- the Leopard!
• Climbing to reach the costly Hearts
• Cocoon above! Cocoon below!
• Color -- Caste -- Denomination --
• Come show thy Durham Breast
• Come slowly -- Eden!
• Conferring with myself
• Confirming All who analyze
• Conjecturing a Climate
• Conscious am I in my Chamber,
• Contained in this short Life
• Cosmopolities without a plea
• Could -- I do more -- for Thee
• Could Hope inspect her Basis
• Could I -- then -- shut the door
• Could I but ride indefinite
• Could live -- did live
• Could mortal lip divine
• Could that sweet Darkness where they dwell
• Count not that far that can be had,
• Crisis is a Hair
• Crisis is sweet and yet the Heart
• Dare you see a Soul at the White Heat?
• Dear March -- Come in --
• Death is a Dialogue between
• Death is like the insect
• Death is potential to that Man
• Death is the supple Suitor
• Death leaves Us homesick, who behind,
• Death sets a Thing significant
• Death warrants are supposed to be
• Declaiming Waters none may dread --
• Defrauded I a Butterfly --
• Delayed till she had ceased to know
• Delight -- becomes pictorial --
• Delight is as the flight
• Denial -- is the only fact
• Departed -- to the Judgment --
• Deprived of other Banquet,
• Dew -- is the Freshet in the Grass --
• Did Our Best Moment last
• Did the Harebell loose her girdle
• Did We abolish Frost
• Did we disobey Him?
• Distance -- is not the Realm of Fox
• Distrustful of the Gentian
• Do People moulder equally,
• Dominion lasts until obtained --
• Doom is the House without the Door
• Doubt Me! My Dim Companion!
• Drab Habitation of Whom?
• Dreams are the subtle Dower
• Dropped into the Ether Acre --
• Drowning is not so pitiful
• Dust is the only Secret
• Dying at my music!
• Dying!  To be afraid of thee
• Dying! Dying in the night!
• Each Life Converges to some Centre --
• Each Second is the last
• Each that we lose takes part of us;
• Eden is that old-fashioned House
• Elizabeth told Essex
• Elysium is as far as to
• Embarrassment of one another
• Empty my Heart, of Thee --
• Endanger it, and the Demand
• Ended, ere it begun --
• Endow the Living -- with the Tears --
• Escape is such a thankful Word
• Escaping backward to perceive
• Essential Oils -- are wrung --
• Estranged from Beauty -- none can be --
• Except the Heaven had come so near
• Except the smaller size
• Except to Heaven, she is nought.
• Exhilaration -- is within
• Exhilaration is the Breeze
• Expanse cannot be lost --
• Expectation -- is Contentment --
• Experience is the Angled Road
• Experiment escorts us last --
• Experiment to me
• Extol thee -- could I?  Then I will
• Exultation is the going
• Facts by our side are never sudden
• Fairer through Fading -- as the Day
• Faith -- is the Pierless Bridge
• Falsehood of Thee could I suppose
• Fame is a bee.
• Fame is a fickle food
• Fame is the one that does not stay --
• Fame is the tine that Scholars leave
• Fame of Myself, to justify,
• Far from Love the Heavenly Father
• Fate slew Him, but He did not drop --
• Few, yet enough,
• Finding is the first Act
• Finite -- to fail, but infinite to Venture --
• Fitter to see Him, I may be
• Flowers -- Well -- if anybody
• Follow wise Orion
• For Death -- or rather
• For each ecstatic instant
• For every Bird a Nest
• For this -- accepted Breath
• Forbidden Fruit a flavor has
• Forever -- it composed of Nows --
• Forever at His side to walk
• Forever honored by the Tree
• Forget! The lady with the Amulet
• Fortitude incarnate
• Four Trees -- upon a solitary Acre --
• Frequently the wood are pink
• Frigid and sweet Her parting Face --
• From all the Jails the Boys and Girls
• From Blank to Blank --
• From Cocoon forth a Butterfly
• From his slim Palace in the Dust
• From Us She wandered now a Year,
• Funny -- to be a Century
• Further in Summer than the Birds
• Garland for Queens, may be
• Gathered into the Earth,
• Give little Anguish
• Given in Marriage unto Thee
• Glass was the Street -- in tinsel Peril
• Glee -- The great storm is over --
• Glory is that bright tragic thing
• Glowing is her Bonnet,
• Go not too near a House of Rose --
• Go slow, my soul, to feed thyself
• Go thy great way!
• God gave a Loaf to every Bird --
• God is a distant -- stately Lover
• God is indeed a jealous God --
• God made a little Gentian
• God made no act without a cause,
• God permits industrious Angels
• Going to Heaven!
• Going to Him! Happy letter!
• Good Morning -- Midnight
• Good Night! Which put the Candle out?
• Good night, because we must,
• Gratitude -- is not the mention
• Great Caesar! Condescend
• Great Streets of silence led away
• Grief is a Mouse --
• Growth of Man -- like Growth of Nature --
• Guest am I to have
• Had I known that the first was the last
• Had I not seen the Sun
• Had I not This, or This, I said,
• Had I presumed to hope --
• Had this one Day not been.
• Had we known the Ton she bore
• Had we our senses
• Have any like Myself
• Have you got a Brook in your little heart,
• He ate and drank the precious Words --
• He forgot -- and I -- remembered
• He found my Being -- set it up --
• He fumbles at your Soul
• He gave away his Life --
• He is alive, this morning --
• He lived the Life of Ambush
• He outstripped Time with but a Bout,
• He parts Himself -- like Leaves --
• He preached upon "Breadth" till it argued him narr
• He put the Belt around my life
• He scanned it -- staggered --
• He strained my faith
• He told a homely tale
• He touched me, so I live to know
• He was my host -- he was my guest,
• He was weak, and I was strong -- then
• He went by sleep that drowsy route
• He who in Himself believes --
• Heart! We will forget him!
• Heart, not so heavy as mine
• Heaven is so far of the Mind
• Her -- "last Poems"
• Her breast is fit for pearls,
• Her face was in a bed of hair,
• Her final Summer was it --
• Her Grace is all she has --
• Her little Parasol to lift
• Her Losses make our Gains ashamed --
• Her smile was shaped like other smiles --
• Her sovereign People
• Her spirit rose to such a height
• Her Sweet turn to leave the Homestead
• Her sweet Weight on my Heart a Night
• Here, where the Daisies fit my Head
• Herein a Blossom lies --
• High from the earth I heard a bird,
• His Bill an Auger is
• His Bill is clasped -- his Eye forsook --
• His Cheek is his Biographer --
• His Feet are shod with Gauze --
• His Heart was darker than the starless night
• His little Hearse like Figure
• His Mansion in the Pool
• His Mind like Fabrics of the East
• His mind of man, a secret makes
• His oriental heresies
• His voice decrepit was with Joy --
• Hope is a strange invention --
• Hope is a subtle Glutton --
• How brittle are the Piers
• How dare the robins sing,
• How destitute is he
• How far is it to Heaven?
• How firm Eternity must look
• How fits his Umber Coat
• How fleet -- how indiscreet an one --
• How fortunate the Grave --
• How good his Lava Bed,
• How happy I was if I could forget
• How happy is the little Stone
• How Human Nature dotes
• How lonesome the Wind must feel Nights --
• How many Flowers fail in Wood
• How many schemes may die
• How many times these low feet staggered
• How much of Source escapes with thee --
• How much the present moment means
• How News must feel when travelling
• How noteless Men, and Pleiads, stand,
• How ruthless are the gentle --
• How sick -- to wait -- in any place -- but thine
• How slow the Wind --
• How soft a Caterpillar steps --
• How soft this Prison is
• How still the Bells in Steeples stand
• How the old Mountains drip with Sunset
• How the Waters closed above Him
• How well I knew Her not
• I am afraid to own a Body --
• I am alive -- I guess
• I am ashamed -- I hide
• I asked no other thing --
• I bet with every Wind that blew
• I breathed enough to take the Trick
• I bring an unaccustomed wine
• I Came to buy a smile -- today
• I can wade Grief
• I cannot be ashamed
• I cannot dance upon my Toes
• I cannot live with You --
• I cannot meet the Spring unmoved --
• I cannot want it more --
• I cautious, scanned my little life
• I could bring You Jewels -- had I a mind to --
• I could die -- to know --
• I could not drink it, Sweet,
• I could not prove the Years had feet --
• I could suffice for Him, I knew --
• I cried at Pity -- not at Pain --
• I cross till I am weary
• I did not reach Thee
• I died for Beauty -- but was scarce
• I dreaded that first Robin, so,
• I dwell in Possibility --
• I envy Seas, whereon He rides
• I fear a Man of frugal Speech --
• I felt a Cleaving in my Mind --
• I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,
• I felt my life with both my hands
• I fit for them --
• I found the words to every thought
• I gained it so
• I gave myself to Him --
• I got so I could take his name
• I groped for him before I knew
• I had a daily Bliss
• I had a guinea golden
• I had been hungry, all the Years --
• I had no Cause to be awake --
• I had no time to Hate
• I had not minded -- Walls
• I had some things that I called mine
• I had the Glory -- that will do
• I have a Bird in spring
• I have a King, who does not speak
• I have never seen "Volcanoes"
• I have no Life but this --
• I heard a Fly buzz -- when I died
• I heard, as if I had no Ear
• I held a Jewel in my fingers
• I hide myself within my flower,
• I keep my pledge.
• I knew that I had gained
• I know a place where Summer strives
• I know lives, I could miss
• I know of people in the Grave
• I know some lonely Houses off the Road
• I know Suspense -- it steps so terse
• I know that He exists.
• I know where Wells grow -- Droughtless Wells
• I learned -- at least -- what Home could be --
• I like a look of Agony,
• I like to see it lap the Miles --
• I live with Him -- I see His face
• I lived on Dread --
• I lost a World -- the other day!
• I made slow Riches but my Gain
• I make His Crescent fill or lack --
• I many times thought Peace had come
• I meant to find Her when I came --
• I meant to have but modest needs
• I measure every Grief I meet
• I met a King this afternoon!
• I never felt at Home -- Below
• I never hear that one is dead
• I never hear the word "escape"
• I never lost as much but twice
• I never saw a Moor --
• I never told the buried gold
• I noticed People disappeared
• I often passed the village
• I pay -- in Satin Cash
• I play at Riches -- to appease
• I prayed, at first, a little Girl,
• I read my sentence -- steadily
• I reason, Earth is short
• I reckon -- when I count it all --
• I robbed the Woods
• I rose -- because He sank --
• I saw no Way -- The Heavens were stitched
• I saw that the Flake was on it
• I saw the wind within her
• I see thee better -- in the Dark --
• I see thee clearer for the Grave
• I send Two Sunsets
• I send you a decrepit flower
• I shall keep singing!
• I shall know why -- when Time is over
• I shall not murmur if at last
• I should have been too glad, I see
• I should not dare to be so sad
• I should not dare to leave my friend,
• I showed her Heights she never saw
• I sing to use the Waiting
• I sometimes drop it, for a Quick --
• I started Early -- Took my Dog --
• I stepped from Plank to Plank
• I stole them from a Bee
• I sued the News -- yet feared -- the News
• I suppose the time will come
• I taste a liquor never brewed
• I tend my flowers for thee
• I think I was enchanted
• I think just how my shape will rise
• I think that the Root of the Wind is Water --
• I think the Hemlock likes to stand
• I think the longest Hour of all
• I think to Live -- may be a Bliss
• I thought that nature was enough
• I thought the Train would never come --
• I tie my Hat -- I crease my Shawl
• I took my Power in my Hand --
• I took one Draught of Life --
• I tried to think a lonelier Thing
• I was a Phoebe -- nothing more --
• I was the slightest in the House
• I watched the Moon around the House
• I watcher her face to see which way
• I went to Heaven
• I went to thank Her
• I worked for chaff and earning Wheat
• I would distil a cup
• I would not paint -- a picture --
• I Years had been from Home
• Ideals are the Fairly Oil
• If all the griefs I am to have
• If any sink, assure that this, now standing
• If Blame be my side -- forfeit Me --
• If ever the lid gets off my head
• If He dissolve -- then
• If He were living -- dare I ask --
• If I can stop one Heart from breaking
• If I could bribe them by a Rose
• If I could tell how glad I was
• If I should cease to bring a Rose
• If I should die,
• If it had no pencil
• If my Bark sink
• If Nature smiles -- the Mother must
• If pain for peace prepares
• If recollecting were forgetting,
• If she had been the Mistletoe
• If the foolish, call them "flowers"
• If this is "fading"
• If those I loved were lost
• If What we could -- were what we would
• If wrecked upon the Shoal of Thought
• If you were coming in the Fall,
• If your Nerve, deny you
• Image of Light, Adieu --
• Immortal is an ample word
• Immured in Heaven!
• Impossibility, like Wine
• In Ebon Box, when years have flown
• In falling Timbers buried --
• In lands I never saw -- they say
• In many and reportless places
• In rags mysterious as these
• In snow thou comest --
• In this short Life
• In thy long Paradise of Light
• In Winter in my Room
• Inconceivably solemn!
• Is Bliss then, such Abyss,
• Is Heaven a Physician?
• Is Immortality a bane
• Is it dead -- Find it
• Is it too late to touch you, Dear?
• Is it true, dear Sue?
• It always felt to me -- a wrong
• It bloomed and dropt, a Single Noon --
• It came at last but prompter Death
• It came his turn to beg --
• It ceased to hurt me, though so slow
• It did not surprise me
• It dropped so low -- in my Regard --
• It feels a shame to be Alive
• It is a lonesome Glee --
• It is an honorable Thought
• It is easy to work when the soul is at play
• It knew no lapse, nor Diminuation --
• It knew no Medicine --
• It makes no difference abroad --
• It might be lonelier
• It rises -- passes -- on our South
• It sifts from Leaden Sieves
• It sounded as if the Streets were running
• It stole along so stealthy
• It struck me -- every Day
• It tossed -- and tossed --
• It troubled me as once I was --
• It was a Grave, yet bore no Stone
• It was a quiet seeming Day --
• It was a quiet way --
• It was given to me by the Gods
• It was not Death, for I stood up,
• It was not Saint -- it was too large --
• It was too late for Man --
• It will be Summer -- eventually.
• It would have starved a Gnat --
• It would never be Common -- more -- I said
• It would not know if it were spurned,
• Its Hour with itself
• Its little Ether Hood
• Jesus! thy Crucifix
• Joy to have merited the Pain --
• Judgment is justest
• Just as He spoke it from his Hands