Top 100 or so Poems of All Time - "Hope is the thing with feathers" by Emily Dickinson

This very simple poem has stood the test of time.  Emily Dickinson uses metaphor and imagery very well in transforming the abstract idea of hope (inanimate) into an animate object -- a bird.  This allows the reader to immediately conjure up an image of hope -- allowing the reader to now address hope - directly - and by doing so,

somehow place hope into context as to how it might play a role in their own lives.

Dickinson was a devout, conservative christian woman.  No doubt the poem was inspired by biblical readings and interpretations.

This poem has served as inspiration for so many people - when times are tough, and it seems as though things aren't going your way, never lose hope.

Well done!  Aspiring poets, remember the important tool of metaphor and imagery - sometimes they can help to get your message or the intent of the feeling across to the reader quite effectively.

Enjoy this masterpiece! 

Hope is the thing with feathers

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.