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In her own words

"Hope" is the thing with feathers

Emily Dickinson · 1830-1886

"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 BirdThat 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.

See it in her own handHoughton Library, Harvard

The poems here are transcribed from Dickinson's own manuscripts, which are in the public domain. Her dashes, capital letters, and spellings are kept as she wrote them, so these read differently from the smoothed versions printed after her death. The manuscript images are reproduced courtesy of the libraries that hold them: the Boston Public Library (no known copyright restrictions), Amherst College Archives and Special Collections (free for non-commercial and educational use, with credit), and the Houghton Library at Harvard University, whose policy permits publishing images of its public-domain holdings. The modern dash-faithful scholarly editions remain under copyright and are not used here.