"Hope is the thing with feathers" By Emily Dickinson. "Hope is the thing with feathers"is one of Emily Dickinson’s most famous poems, capturing the essence of hope in metaphorical terms. Written in 1861, the poem is structured in three quatrains and follows an ABCB rhyme scheme, which is common in Dickinson’s work. Stanza One The poem opens with a metaphor that likens hope to a bird: "Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul And sings the tune without the words And never stops -