Given that my theme this week has been women poets and it is also Thanksgiving weekend, it seems appropriate to include Emily Dickinson here today. She is another poet I feel like I should know more about. I can see a plan forming for 2021 to read more poetry and I think Emily Dickinson will be near the top of the list. This poem is also timely as we start to come out of Lockdown: The Return and whilst normality is a long way off, perhaps, there is hope for some different interactions. Christmas comes, whatever that looks like, it is a change from the “routine” and there is hope for 2021.
“Hope” is the thing with feathers - (314)
“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.
c.1861.