[ { "title": "Hope and Fear", "author": "Algernon Charles Swinburne", "lines": [ "Beneath the shadow of dawn's aërial cope,", "With eyes enkindled as the sun's own sphere,", "Hope from the front of youth in godlike cheer", "Looks Godward, past the shades where blind men grope", "Round the dark door that prayers nor dreams can ope,", "And makes for joy the very darkness dear", "That gives her wide wings play; nor dreams that fear", "At noon may rise and pierce the heart of hope.", "Then, when the soul leaves off to dream and yearn,", "May truth first purge her eyesight to discern", "What, once being known, leaves time no power to appall;", "Till yoiuth at last, ere yet youth be not, learn", "The kind wise word that falls from years that fall--", "\"Hope thou not much, and fear thou not at all.\"" ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Oh, They have Robbed Me of The Hope", "author": "Anne Bronte", "lines": [ "Oh, they have robbed me of the hope", "My spirit held so dear;", "They will not let me hear that voice", "My soul delights to hear.", "They will not let me see that face", "I so delight to see;", "And they have taken all thy smiles,", "And all thy love from me.", "", "Well, let them seize on all they can: --", "One treasure still is mine, --", "A heart that loves to think on thee,", "And feels the worth of thine." ], "linecount": "12" }, { "title": "Hope", "author": "Anne Kingsmill Finch", "lines": [ "The Tree of Knowledge we in Eden prov'd;", "The Tree of Life was thence to Heav'n remov'd:", "Hope is the growth of Earth, the only Plant,", "Which either Heav'n, or Paradise cou'd want.", "", "", "Hell knows it not, to Us alone confin'd,", "And Cordial only to the Human Mind.", "Receive it then, t'expel these mortal Cares,", "Nor wave a Med'cine, which thy God prepares." ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "Hope", "author": "Emily Bronte", "lines": [ "Hope was but a timid friend;", "She sat without the grated den,", "Watching how my fate would tend,", "Even as selfish-hearted men.", "", "She was cruel in her fear;", "Through the bars, one dreary day,", "I looked out to see her there,", "And she turned her face away!", "", "Like a false guard, false watch keeping,", "Still, in strife, she whispered peace;", "She would sing while I was weeping;", "If I listened, she would cease.", "", "False she was, and unrelenting;", "When my last joys strewed the ground,", "Even Sorrow saw, repenting,", "Those sad relics scattered round;", "", "Hope, whose whisper would have given", "Balm to all my frenzied pain,", "Stretched her wings, and soared to heaven,", "Went, and ne'er returned again!" ], "linecount": "20" }, { "title": "Could Hope inspect her Basis", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "Could Hope inspect her Basis", "Her Craft were done --", "Has a fictitious Charter", "Or it has none --", "", "Balked in the vastest instance", "But to renew --", "Felled by but one assassin --", "Prosperity --" ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "A great Hope fell", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "A great Hope fell", "You heard no noise", "The Ruin was within", "Oh cunning wreck that told no tale", "And let no Witness in", "", "The mind was built for mighty Freight", "For dread occasion planned", "How often foundering at Sea", "Ostensibly, on Land", "", "A not admitting of the wound", "Until it grew so wide", "That all my Life had entered it", "And there were troughs beside", "", "A closing of the simple lid", "That opened to the sun", "Until the tender Carpenter", "Perpetual nail it down --" ], "linecount": "17" }, { "title": "And this of all my Hopes", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "And this of all my Hopes", "This, is the silent end", "Bountiful colored, my Morning rose", "Early and sere, its end", "", "Never Bud from a Stem", "Stepped with so gay a Foot", "Never a Worm so confident", "Bored at so brave a Root" ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "\"Hope\" is the thing with feathers", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "\"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." ], "linecount": "12" }, { "title": "This is the place they hoped before,", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "This is the place they hoped before,", "Where I am hoping now.", "The seed of disappointment grew", "Within a capsule gay,", "Too distant to arrest the feet", "That walk this plank of balm --", "Before them lies escapeless sea --", "The way is closed they came." ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "When I hoped, I recollect", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "When I hoped, I recollect", "Just the place I stood --", "At a Window facing West --", "Roughest Air -- was good --", "", "Not a Sleet could bite me --", "Not a frost could cool --", "Hope it was that kept me warm --", "Not Merino shawl --", "", "When I feared -- I recollect", "Just the Day it was --", "Worlds were lying out to Sun --", "Yet how Nature froze --", "", "Icicles upon my soul", "Prickled Blue and Cool --", "Bird went praising everywhere --", "Only Me -- was still --", "", "And the Day that I despaired --", "This -- if I forget", "Nature will -- that it be Night", "After Sun has set --", "Darkness intersect her face --", "And put out her eye --", "Nature hesitate -- before", "Memory and I --" ], "linecount": "24" }, { "title": "When I hoped I feared --", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "When I hoped I feared --", "Since I hoped I dared", "Everywhere alone", "As a Church remain --", "Spectre cannot harm --", "Serpent cannot charm --", "He deposes Doom", "Who hath suffered him --" ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "Hope is a subtle Glutton --", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "Hope is a subtle Glutton --", "He feeds upon the Fair --", "And yet -- inspected closely", "What Abstinence is there --", "", "His is the Halcyon Table --", "That never seats but One --", "And whatsoever is consumed", "The same amount remain --" ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "Had I presumed to hope --", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "Had I presumed to hope --", "The loss had been to Me", "A Value -- for the Greatness' Sake --", "As Giants -- gone away --", "", "Had I presumed to gain", "A Favor so remote --", "The failure but confirm the Grace", "In further Infinite --", "", "'Tis failure -- not of Hope --", "But Confident Despair --", "Advancing on Celestial Lists --", "With faint -- Terrestial power --", "", "'Tis Honor -- though I die --", "For That no Man obtain", "Till He be justified by Death --", "This -- is the Second Gain --" ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "The Service without Hope --", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "The Service without Hope --", "Is tenderest, I think --", "Because 'tis unsustained", "By stint -- Rewarded Work --", "", "Has impetus of Gain --", "And impetus of Goal --", "There is no Diligence like that", "That knows not an Until --" ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "The way Hope builds his House", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "The way Hope builds his House", "It is not with a sill --", "Nor Rafter -- has that Edifice", "But only Pinnacle --", "", "Abode in as supreme", "This superficies", "As if it were of Ledges smit", "Or mortised with the Laws --" ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "Somewhat, to hope for,", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "Somewhat, to hope for,", "Be it ne'er so far", "Is Capital against Despair --", "", "Somewhat, to suffer,", "Be it ne'er so keen --", "If terminable, may be borne." ], "linecount": "6" }, { "title": "Hope is a strange invention --", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "Hope is a strange invention --", "A Patent of the Heart --", "In unremitting action", "Yet never wearing out --", "", "Of this electric Adjunct", "Not anything is known", "But its unique momentum", "Embellish all we own --" ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "Hope Holds to Christ", "author": "Gerard Manley Hopkins", "lines": [ ". . . . . . . .", "Hope holds to Christ the mind’s own mirror out", "To take His lovely likeness more and more.", "It will not well, so she would bring about", "An ever brighter burnish than before", "And turns to wash it from her welling eyes", "And breathes the blots off all with sighs on sighs.", "Her glass is blest but she as good as blind", "Holds till hand aches and wonders what is there;", "Her glass drinks light, she darkles down behind,", "All of her glorious gainings unaware.", ". . . . . . . .", "I told you that she turned her mirror dim", "Betweenwhiles, but she sees herself not Him.", ". . . . . . . ." ], "linecount": "15" }, { "title": "To Hope", "author": "John Keats", "lines": [ "When by my solitary hearth I sit,", " And hateful thoughts enwrap my soul in gloom;", "When no fair dreams before my \"mind's eye\" flit,", " And the bare heath of life presents no bloom;", " Sweet Hope, ethereal balm upon me shed,", " And wave thy silver pinions o'er my head!", "", "Whene'er I wander, at the fall of night,", " Where woven boughs shut out the moon's bright ray,", "Should sad Despondency my musings fright,", " And frown, to drive fair Cheerfulness away,", " Peep with the moonbeams through the leafy roof,", " And keep that fiend Despondence far aloof!", "", "Should Disappointment, parent of Despair,", " Strive for her son to seize my careless heart;", "When, like a cloud, he sits upon the air,", " Preparing on his spell-bound prey to dart:", " Chase him away, sweet Hope, with visage bright,", " And fright him as the morning frightens night!", "", "Whene'er the fate of those I hold most dear", " Tells to my fearful breast a tale of sorrow,", "O bright-eyed Hope, my morbidfancy cheer;", " Let me awhile thy sweetest comforts borrow:", " Thy heaven-born radiance around me shed,", " And wave thy silver pinions o'er my head!", "", "Should e'er unhappy love my bosom pain,", " From cruel parents, or relentless fair;", "O let me think it is not quite in vain", " To sigh out sonnets to the midnight air!", " Sweet Hope, ethereal balm upon me shed,", " And wave thy silver pinions o'er my head!", "", "In the long vista of the years to roll,", " Let me not see our country's honour fade:", "O let me see our land retain her soul,", " Her pride, her freedom; and not freedom's shade.", " From thy bright eyes unusual brightness shed---", " Beneath thy pinions canopy my head!", "", "Let me not see the patriot's high bequest,", " Great Liberty! how great in plain attire!", "With the base purple of a court oppress'd,", " Bowing her head, and ready to expire:", " But let me see thee stoop from heaven on wings", " That fill the skies with silver glitterings!", "", "And as, in sparkling majesty, a star", " Gilds the bright summit of some gloomy cloud;", "Brightening the half veil'd face of heaven afar:", " So, when dark thoughts my boding spirit shroud,", " Sweet Hope, celestial influence round me shed,", " Waving thy silver pinions o'er my head!" ], "linecount": "48" }, { "title": "The Hope Of My Heart", "author": "John McCrae", "lines": [ "\"Delicta juventutis et ignorantius ejus, quoesumus ne memineris, Domine.\"", "", "", "", "I left, to earth, a little maiden fair,", "With locks of gold, and eyes that shamed the light;", "I prayed that God might have her in His care", "And sight.", "", "Earth's love was false; her voice, a siren's song;", "(Sweet mother-earth was but a lying name)", "The path she showed was but the path of wrong", "And shame.", "", "\"Cast her not out!\" I cry. God's kind words come --", "\"Her future is with Me, as was her past;", "It shall be My good will to bring her home", "At last.\"" ], "linecount": "13" }, { "title": "Sonnet XVI: Delusive Hope", "author": "Robinson", "lines": [ "Delusive Hope! more transient than the ray", "That leads pale twilight to her dusky bed,", "O'er woodland glen, or breezy mountain's head,", "Ling'ring to catch the parting sigh of day.", "Hence with thy visionary charms, away!", "Nor o'er my path the flow'rs of fancy spread;", "Thy airy dreams on peaceful pillows shed,", "And weave for thoughtless brows, a garland gay.", "Farewell low vallies; dizzy cliffs, farewell!", "Small vagrant rills that murmur as ye flow:", "Dark bosom'd labyrinth and thorny dell;", "The task be mine all pleasures to forego;", "To hide, where meditation loves to dwell,", "And feed my soul, with luxury of woe!" ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "155. Epistle to Mrs. Scott of Wauchope House", "author": "Robert Burns", "lines": [ "GUDEWIFE,I MIND it weel in early date,", "When I was bardless, young, and blate,", " An’ first could thresh the barn,", "Or haud a yokin’ at the pleugh;", "An, tho’ forfoughten sair eneugh,", " Yet unco proud to learn:", "When first amang the yellow corn", " A man I reckon’d was,", "An’ wi’ the lave ilk merry morn", " Could rank my rig and lass,", " Still shearing, and clearing", " The tither stooked raw,", " Wi’ claivers, an’ haivers,", " Wearing the day awa.", "", "", "E’en then, a wish, (I mind its pow’r),", "A wish that to my latest hour", " Shall strongly heave my breast,", "That I for poor auld Scotland’s sake", "Some usefu’ plan or book could make,", " Or sing a sang at least.", "The rough burr-thistle, spreading wide", " Amang the bearded bear,", "I turn’d the weeder-clips aside,", " An’ spar’d the symbol dear:", " No nation, no station,", " My envy e’er could raise;", " A Scot still, but blot still,", " I knew nae higher praise.", "", "", "But still the elements o’ sang,", "In formless jumble, right an’ wrang,", " Wild floated in my brain;", "’Till on that har’st I said before,", "May partner in the merry core,", " She rous’d the forming strain;", "I see her yet, the sonsie quean,", " That lighted up my jingle,", "Her witching smile, her pawky een", " That gart my heart-strings tingle;", " I firèd, inspired,", " At every kindling keek,", " But bashing, and dashing,", " I fearèd aye to speak.", "", "", "Health to the sex! ilk guid chiel says:", "Wi’ merry dance in winter days,", " An’ we to share in common;", "The gust o’ joy, the balm of woe,", "The saul o’ life, the heaven below,", " Is rapture-giving woman.", "Ye surly sumphs, who hate the name,", " Be mindfu’ o’ your mither;", "She, honest woman, may think shame", " That ye’re connected with her:", " Ye’re wae men, ye’re nae men", " That slight the lovely dears;", " To shame ye, disclaim ye,", " Ilk honest birkie swears.", "", "", "For you, no bred to barn and byre,", "Wha sweetly tune the Scottish lyre,", " Thanks to you for your line:", "The marled plaid ye kindly spare,", "By me should gratefully be ware;", " ’Twad please me to the nine.", "I’d be mair vauntie o’ my hap,", " Douce hingin owre my curple,", "Than ony ermine ever lap,", " Or proud imperial purple.", " Farewell then, lang hale then,", " An’ plenty be your fa;", " May losses and crosses", " Ne’er at your hallan ca’!R. BURNS.March, 1787" ], "linecount": "70" }, { "title": "Since Thou Hast Given Me This Good Hope, O God", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "SINCE thou hast given me this good hope, O God,", "That while my footsteps tread the flowery sod", "And the great woods embower me, and white dawn", "And purple even sweetly lead me on", "From day to day, and night to night, O God,", "My life shall no wise miss the light of love;", "But ever climbing, climb above", "Man's one poor star, man's supine lands,", "Into the azure steadfastness of death,", "My life shall no wise lack the light of love,", "My hands not lack the loving touch of hands;", "But day by day, while yet I draw my breath,", "And day by day, unto my last of years,", "I shall be one that has a perfect friend.", "Her heart shall taste my laughter and my tears,", "And her kind eyes shall lead me to the end." ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "Work Without Hope", "author": "Samuel Coleridge", "lines": [ "All Nature seems at work. Slugs leave their lair—", "The bees are stirring—birds are on the wing—", "And Winter slumbering in the open air,", "Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring!", "And I the while, the sole unbusy thing,", "Nor honey make, nor pair, nor build, nor sing.", "", "Yet well I ken the banks where amaranths blow,", "Have traced the fount whence streams of nectar flow.", "Bloom, O ye amaranths! bloom for whom ye may,", "For me ye bloom not! Glide, rich streams, away!", "With lips unbrightened, wreathless brow, I stroll:", "And would you learn the spells that drowse my soul?", "Work without Hope draws nectar in a sieve,", "And Hope without an object cannot live.", "", "(composed 21st February 1825)" ], "linecount": "15" }, { "title": "When Hope but made Tranquillity be felt (fragment)", "author": "Samuel Coleridge", "lines": [ "When Hope but made Tranquillity be felt--", "A Flight of Hopes for ever on the wing", "But made Tranquillity a conscious Thing--", "And wheeling round and round in sportive coil", "Fann'd the calm air upon the brow of Toil--" ], "linecount": "5" }, { "title": "I'd Mourn the Hopes", "author": "Thomas Moore", "lines": [ "I'd mourn the hopes that leave me,", "If thy smiles had left me too;", "I'd weep when friends deceive me,", "If thou wert, like them, untrue.", "But while I've thee before me,", "With heart so warm and eyes so bright,", "No clouds can linger o'er me,", "That smile turns them all to light.", "", "'Tis not in fate to harm me,", "While fate leaves thy love to me:", "'Tis not in joy to charm me,", "Unless joy be shared with thee.", "One minute's dream about thee", "Were worth a long, an endless year", "Of waking bliss without thee,", "My own love, my only dear!", "", "And though the hope be gone, love,", "That long sparkled o'er our way,", "Oh! we shall journey on, love,", "More safely, without its ray.", "Far better lights shall win me,", "Along the path I've yet to roam --", "The mind that burns within me,", "And pure smiles from thee at home.", "", "Thus, when the lamp that lighted", "The traveller at first goes out,", "He feels awhile benighted,", "And looks round in fear and doubt.", "But soon, the prospect clearing,", "By cloudless starlight on he treads,", "And thinks no lamp so cheering", "As the light which Heaven sheds." ], "linecount": "32" }, { "title": "Lively Hope and Gracious Fear", "author": "William Cowper", "lines": [ "I was a grovelling creature once,", "And basely cleaved to earth:", "I wanted spirit to renounce", "The clod that gave me birth.", "", "But God hath breathed upon a worm,", "And sent me from above", "Wings such as clothe an angel's form,", "The wings of joy and love.", "", "With these to Pisgah's top I fly", "And there delighted stand,", "To view, beneath a shining sky,", "The spacious promised land.", "", "The Lord of all the vast domain", "Has promised it to me,", "The length and breadth of all the plain", "As far as faith can see.", "", "How glorious is my privilege!", "To Thee for help I call;", "I stand upon a mountain's edge,", "O save me, lest I fall!", "", "Though much exalted in the Lord,", "My strength is not my own;", "Then let me tremble at His word,", "And none shall cast me down." ], "linecount": "24" }, { "title": "Evelyn Hope", "author": "Robert Browning", "lines": [ "Beautiful Evelyn Hope is dead!", " Sit and watch by her side an hour.", "That is her book-shelf, this her bed;", " She plucked that piece of geranium-flower,", "Beginning to die too, in the glass;", " Little has yet been changed, I think:", "The shutters are shut, no light may pass", " Save two long rays thro' the hinge's chink.", "", "Sixteen years old when she died!", " Perhaps she had scarcely heard my name;", "It was not her time to love; beside,", " Her life had many a hope and aim,", "Duties enough and little cares,", " And now was quiet, now astir,", "Till God's hand beckoned unawares,--", " And the sweet white brow is all of her.", "", "Is it too late then, Evelyn Hope?", " What, your soul was pure and true,", "The good stars met in your horoscope,", " Made you of spirit, fire and dew--", "And just because I was thrice as old", " And our paths in the world diverged so wide,", "Each was naught to each, must I be told?", " We were fellow mortals, naught beside?", "", "No, indeed! for God above", " Is great to grant, as mighty to make,", "And creates the love to reward the love:", " I claim you still, for my own love's sake!", "Delayed it may be for more lives yet,", " Thro' worlds I shall traverse, not a few:", "Much is to learn, much, to forget", " Ere the time be come for taking you.", "", "But the time will come, at last it will,", " When, Evelyn Hope, what meant (I shall say)", "In the lower earth in the years long still,", " That body and soul so pure and gay?", "Why your hair was amber, I shall divine,", " And your mouth of your own geranium's red--", "And what would you do with me, in fine,", " In the new life come in the old one's stead.", "", "I have lived (I shall say) so much since then,", " Given up myself so many times,", "Gained me the gains of various men,", " Ransacked the ages, spoiled the climes;", "Yet one thing, one, in my soul's full scope,", " Either I missed or itself missed me:", "And I want and find you, Evelyn Hope!", " What is the issue? let us see!", "", "I loved you, Evelyn, all the while!", " My heart seemed full as it could hold;", "There was place and to spare for the frank young smile,", " And the red young mouth, and the hair's young gold.", "So hush,--I will give you this leaf to keep:", " See, I shut it inside the sweet cold hand!", "There, that is our secret: go to sleep!", " You will wake, and remember, and understand." ], "linecount": "56" }, { "title": "Fragment: 'Such Hope, As Is the Sick Despair of Good'", "author": "Percy Bysshe Shelley", "lines": [ "Such hope, as is the sick despair of good,", "Such fear, as is the certainty of ill,", "Such doubt, as is pale Expectation's food", "Turned while she tastes to poison, when the will", "Is powerless, and the spirit..." ], "linecount": "5" }, { "title": "Love, Hope, Desire, and Fear", "author": "Percy Bysshe Shelley", "lines": [ "...", "", "And many there were hurt by that strong boy,", "His name, they said, was Pleasure,", "And near him stood, glorious beyond measure", "Four Ladies who possess all empery", "In earth and air and sea,", "Nothing that lives from their award is free.", "Their names will I declare to thee,", "Love, Hope, Desire, and Fear,", "And they the regents are", "Of the four elements that frame the heart,", "And each diversely exercised her art", "By force or circumstance or sleight", "To prove her dreadful might", "Upon that poor domain.", "Desire presented her glass, and then", "The spirit dwelling there", "Was spellbound to embrace what seemed so fair", "Within that magic mirror,", "And dazed by that bright error,", "It would have scorned the of the avenger", "And death, and penitence, and danger,", "Had not then silent Fear", "Touched with her palsying spear,", "So that as if a frozen torrent", "The blood was curdled in its current;", "It dared not speak, even in look or motion,", "But chained within itself its proud devotion.", "Between Desire and Fear thou wert", "A wretched thing, poor heart!", "Sad was his life who bore thee in his breast,", "Wild bird for that weak nest.", "Till Love even from fierce Desire it bought,", "And from the very wound of tender thought", "Drew solace, and the pity of sweet eyes", "Gave strength to bear those gentle agonies,", "Surmount the loss, the terror, and the sorrow.", "Then Hope approached, she who can borrow", "For poor to-day, from rich tomorrow,", "And Fear withdrew, as night when day", "Descends upon the orient ray,", "And after long and vain endurance", "The poor heart woke to her assurance.", "--At one birth these four were born", "With the world's forgotten morn,", "And from Pleasure still they hold", "All it circles, as of old.", "When, as summer lures the swallow,", "Pleasure lures the heart to follow--", "O weak heart of little wit!", "The fair hand that wounded it,", "Seeking, like a panting hare,", "Refuge in the lynx's lair,", "Love, Desire, Hope, and Fear,", "Ever will be near." ], "linecount": "55" }, { "title": "Hope", "author": "Percy Bysshe Shelley", "lines": [ "And said I that all hope was fled,", "That sorrow and despair were mine,", "That each enthusiast wish was dead,", "Had sank beneath pale Misery's shrine.--", "", "Seest thou the sunbeam's yellow glow,", "That robes with liquid streams of light;", "Yon distant Mountain's craggy brow.", "And shows the rocks so fair,--so bright--", "", "Tis thus sweet expectation's ray,", "In softer view shows distant hours,", "And portrays each succeeding day,", "As dressed in fairer, brighter flowers,--", "", "The vermeil tinted flowers that blossom;", "Are frozen but to bud anew,", "Then sweet deceiver calm my bosom,", "Although thy visions be not true,--", "", "Yet true they are,--and I'll believe,", "Thy whisperings soft of love and peace,", "God never made thee to deceive,", "'Tis sin that bade thy empire cease.", "", "Yet though despair my life should gloom,", "Though horror should around me close,", "With those I love, beyond the tomb,", "Hope shows a balm for all my woes." ], "linecount": "24" } ]