“Hope” is the thing with feathers

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Instrumentation: SAB or TBB chorus a cappella, baritone solo, and djembe
Duration: 2’41”
Poet: Emily Dickinson

Text:

“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.

-Emily Dickinson

This poem is in the public domain.