“Hope” is the thing with feathers - (314) by Emily Dickinson

“Hope” is the thing with feathers - (314)  

by American poet, Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (1830 – 1886) 

Daguerreotype taken at Mount Holyoke, December 1846 or early 1847; 
the only authenticated portrait of Emily Dickinson after childhood

“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.

~*~
Please visit the splendid source of literature at:
 https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42889/hope-is-the-thing-with-feathers-314
Emily Dickinson, "'Hope' is the Thing with Feathers" from The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, edited by Thomas H. Johnson, ed., Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University press, Copyright © 1951, 1955, 1979, 1983 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Reprinted by permissions of the publishers and Trustees of Amherst College.

Source: The Poems of Emily Dickinson Edited by R. W. Franklin (Harvard University Press, 1999)

~*~

American poet, Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (1830 – 1886) 

Excerpt from WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Dickinson

Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, (USA) into a prominent family with strong ties to its community. After studying at the Amherst Academy for seven years in her youth, she briefly attended the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before returning to her family's house in Amherst.

Evidence suggests that Dickinson lived much of her life in isolation. Considered an eccentric by locals, she developed a penchant for white clothing and was known for her reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, to even leave her bedroom. Dickinson never married, and most friendships between her and others depended entirely upon correspondence.[2]

While Dickinson was a prolific poet, only 10 of her nearly 1,800 poems were published during her lifetime.[3] The poems published then were usually edited significantly to fit conventional poetic rules. Her poems were unique to her era. They contain short lines, typically lack titles, and often use slant rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization and punctuation.[4] Many of her poems deal with themes of death and immortality, two recurring topics in letters to her friends.

Although Dickinson's acquaintances were likely aware of her writing, it was not until after her death in 1886—when Lavinia, Dickinson's younger sister, discovered her cache of poems—that the breadth of her work became public. A complete, and mostly unaltered, collection of her poetry became available for the first time when scholar Thomas H. Johnson published The Poems of Emily Dickinson in 1955.

~*~

Ecco il mio tentativo di tradurre in italiano ;-)

"Speranza" è la cosa con le piume - (314)  

di Emily Elizabeth Dickinson, poetessa Americana

Speranza" è la cosa con le piume -
Che si appollaia nell'anima
E canta la melodia senza le parole -
E non si ferma mai - affatto -

E il più dolce - in the Gale - viene ascoltato -
E il dolore deve essere la tempesta -
Ciò potrebbe sottolineare il piccolo uccello
Ciò ha tenuto così tanti caldi -

L'ho sentito nella terra più fredda
E sul mare più strano -
Eppure - mai - in Estremità,
chiese una briciola - da me.