“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 American poet Emily Dickinson and her contemporary Walt Whitman are regarded as the founders of a unique American poetic voice.
As the former lived in seclusion, only ten of her nearly 1800 poems are known to have been published in her lifetime. Her poems are unique for the era in which she wrote because she freely ignored the usual rules of versification. Her work’s main themes are death and immortality.
“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... [+]
Because I could not stop for Death–
He kindly stopped for me–
The Carriage held but just Ourselves–
And Immortality.
We slowly drove–He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my... [+]
A Bird, came down the Walk -
He did not know I saw -
He bit an Angle Worm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw,
And then, he drank a Dew
From a convenient Grass -
And then hopped sidewise... [+]
Success is counted sweetest
By those who ne'er succeed.
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need.
Not one of all the purple Host
Who took the Flag today
Can tell the definition
So clear of... [+]
I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,
And Mourners to and fro
Kept treading–treading–till it seemed
That Sense was breaking through–
And when they all were seated,
A Service, like a Drum–... [+]
I’m Nobody! Who are you?
Are you–Nobody–too?
Then there’s a pair of us!
Don’t tell! they’d advertise–you know!
How dreary–to be–Somebody!
How public–like a Frog–
To tell... [+]
I taste a liquor never brewed –
From Tankards scooped in Pearl –
Not all the Frankfort Berries
Yield such an Alcohol!
Inebriate of... [+]
I like to see it lap the miles,
And lick the valleys up,
And stop to feed itself at tanks;
And then, prodigious, step
Around a pile of mountains,
And, supercilious, peer
In shanties, by... [+]