Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, HOPE, by EMMA LAZARUS


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HOPE, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Her languid pulses thrill with sudden hope
Last Line: She bows her head, and bides the certain dawn.
Subject(s): Hope; Optimism


Her languid pulses thrill with sudden hope,
That will not be forgot nor cast aside,
And life in statelier vistas seems to ope,
Illimitably lofty, long, and wide.
What doth she know? She is subdued and mild
Quiet and docile "as a weaned child."
If grief came in such unimagined wise,
How may joy dawn? In what undreamed hour,
May the light break with splendor of surprise,
Disclosing all the mercy and the power?
A baseless hope, yet vivid, keen, and bright,
As the wild lightning in the starless night.
She knows not whence it came, nor where it pass
But it revealed, in one brief flash of flame,
A heaven so high, a world so rich and vast,
That, full of meek contrition and mute shame,
In patient silence hopefully withdrawn,
She bows her head, and bides the certain dawn.





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