Farewell Service

Hymns, readings and a printed program for a Christian funeral

Hope Is the Thing with Feathers

by Emily Dickinson (1830–1886)

Reads in about 1 minute12 linesNon-religious

Add to my planLarge print for the reader

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.

About this text

Poet
Emily Dickinson, 1830–1886
Printing used
Poems: Second Series (1891), as “Hope”
First published
1891
Public domain
This printing 1891, before 1931
Often chosen
for mom, for a woman, non-religious, short