blog-maryBlog - Joyful Curmudgeon - Blog
A Mary T. Hoffman Commentary from All-Creatures.org

 

"Joyful Curmudgeon" An oxymoron?
No! I see all the beauty of God's creation and I'm joyful.  At the same time, I see all the suffering and corruption going on in the world, and feel called to help expose and end it so that we may have true peace and compassion.

 


Hope – 8 November 2007
By Mary T. Hoffman

You know how sometimes one thing leads to another – well, I was reading a poem by Emily Dickinson about hope, when I thought of a well known quotation by Alexander Pope, the English poet who was born in London 21 May 1688 and died 30 May 1744: “Hope springs eternal in the human breast: Man never is, but always to be blest. The soul, uneasy and confined from home, Rests and expatiates in a life to come.”

Here is that poem by Emily Dickinson:

“Hope is the thing with feathers….”
By Emily Dickinson
(10 December 1830 – 15 May 1886)

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.

The word “hope” appears 141 times in the New American Standard Bible and 129 times in the King James Version of the Bible.

Here are two Bible verses that mention the word “hope”:

Romans 15:13
13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
~ New American Standard Bible

1 Corinthians 13:13
13 But now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
~ New American Standard Bible

For a collection of quotations, visit:
http://www.all-creatures.org/quote.html 

For poetry and stories, visit:
http://www.all-creatures.org/poetrydir.html 

Go on to: Politics and Religion – 9 November 2007
Return to: Blessings of Autumn – 7 November 2007
Return to: Blog - Main Page
Return to: Archive - By Date
Return to: Archive - By Subject

See Readers Comments