Hope by Emily Dickinson

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul...
~Emily Dickinson

My Princess has been given several books of poems by her grandparents and we are putting them to good use. We picked one poem on hope from the book of Emily Dickinson works and the child memorized it in less than a week. She has always been very good with memorization and I think using First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind by Jessie Wise for the first two years of homeschooling helped us both with the technique of memorization and training her how to master reciting from memory. We discussed the metaphor of hope being personified as a bird in detail. She has been working on fine tuning the inflections the last couple of days, so that as she recites, she also enriches the imagery.

Hope

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.

Isn't this a sweet poem worth calling to up from memory?

~ Thank you, My Lord, for the ability to create and enjoy the creations of others, for being able to envision how another sees and thinks. With all interesting the minds and hearts of your followers, I can only imagine how You might be entertained by our imaginations...at least, I hope You are. ~