"Hope" - Emily Dickinson. Hope in Social Isolation

“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.

*******

...and what of "Despair"?

"An imperial affliction

Sent us of the Air".

"Life is but life, and death but death!
Bliss is but bliss, and breath but breath!"

My letter to the world (a beautiful song setting by Raul Scacchi - click and listen)

The singer is Kaliroe Raouzeou.


This is my letter to the world,
That never wrote to me,--
The simple news that Nature told,
With tender majesty.
Her message is committed
To hands I cannot see;
For love of her, sweet countrymen,
Judge tenderly of me!


Emily Dickinson (In Our Time), Melvyn Bragg BBC podcast