Hope is the thing with feathers
Emily Dickinson (1830–1886)
first published 1891

Cold Library · Open Stacks · S-004015 · https://coldlibrary.com/s/004015
Rights: First published in 1891, after the author’s death in 1886; the editors died in 1911 and 1932. Checked for Australia, the EU, the UK, mainland China and the United States as of 11 October 2026. Guidance, not legal advice.
Source: Project Gutenberg, https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/12242/pg12242.txt (retrieved 2026-10-11)
Generated 2026-10-14 from https://coldlibrary.com/en/open-stacks/dickinson-hope-is-the-thing-with-feathers

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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.