Hope is the thing with feathers

Today I read The Mouse of Amherst to my daughters.  The book, written by Elizabeth Spires, is about a little mouse named Emmaline who takes up residency in Emily Dickinson's room.  Emmaline begins writing letters to Dickinson--this was the poet's preferred method of communication--and eventually they become friends. There are misadventures with cats and a scary white-furred, red-eyed stoat.  There is the indignity that Emmaline feels when caught acting like a savage rat, but mostly the story is about Emmaline's passion for words.  

"The words spoke to me.  These were my feelings exactly,

 but ones I had always kept hidden for fear the world would

 think me a sentimental fool.  I felt giddy and inspired, as if a 

whirligig were spinning in my brain.  Almost without thinking, I sat 

down at my table, picked up my quill pen, and began writing on the

 back of Emily's poem.  Words poured out of me in a torrent."

                                                             

Hope is the thing with feathers

By Emily Dickinson

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 liked to make gingerbread.  She would lower a basketful from her second story bedroom window to the neighborhood children below.

My daughters wrapped the cookies along with a copy of  "Hope is the thing with feathers" and took them to The Arts Center to give to friends.  Happy National Poetry Month!

Amazon Link to The Mouse of Amherst by Elizabeth Spires

A poem by Elizabeth Spires, "The Summer of Celia."