Hope
Hope is the thing with feathersThat 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 stormThat could abash the little birdThat 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.
Words in this poem
- abash v.
- To destroy the self-possession of; to confuse or confound, as by exciting suddenly a consciousness of guilt, mistake, or inferiority; to put to shame; to disconcert; to discomfit. [OE. abaissen, abaisshen, abashen, OF.esbahir, F. ébahir, to astonish, fr. L. ex + the interjection bah, expressing astonishment. In OE. somewhat confused with a]
- crumb n.
- A small fragment or piece; especially, a small piece of bread or other food, broken or cut off. [AS. cruma, akin to D. kruim, G. krume; cf. G. krauen to scratch, claw.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Hope is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete, Project Gutenberg ebook #12242; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Emily Dickinson, Hope, in Poems (1890–1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12242, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dickinson-poems/hope.html, id L03638.
Form and metre
Hope is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.9 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in common measure.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 2 ABAB heardA · stormB · birdA · warmB
- 3 -A-A land · seaA · extremity · meA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Hope is the thing with feathers | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| That perches in the soul, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And sings the tune without the words, | 8 | ········ |
| And never stops at all, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And sweetest in the gale is heard; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And sore must be the storm | 6 | ······ |
| That could abash the little bird | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| That kept so many warm. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| I 've heard it in the chillest land, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| And on the strangest sea; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Yet, never, in extremity, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| It asked a crumb of me. | 6 | ······ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.