“Hope springs eternal”…and vice versa

As Alexander Pope mused back in 1733, “Hope springs eternal…” For me, Spring hopes eternal, and Spring officially arrives in the month of March. Unless you live in the southern hemisphere in which Spring begins in September!)

March is the baby of the seasonal year—All pastel pinks, and blues, and lavenders, and yellows, and the softest of greens. And just like an infant, it is the embodiment of hope.

From ancient, gnarled tree branches, tender buds emerge. From the seemingly barren ground, green shoots arise. Eggs hatch, lambs are born, bees buzz, and butterflies return. Showers baptize the earth, and the air is fragrant with hope. Awakening to birdsong fills the spirit with a sense of anticipation. The day is newborn, the season is young, and our hearts swell with possibility.

So, my friends, gird your loins with Hope and March forth!

Below, is the full stanza from Pope’s poetic work: “An Essay on Man, Epistle I”, which includes his famous line. Following that, is my favorite hopeful poem, written by Emily Dickinson around 1861, and published posthumously in 1891: “Hope is the thing with feathers.”

From “An Essay on Man, Epistle I” —by Alexander Pope

~Hope humbly then; with trembling pinions soar;

Wait the great teacher Death; and God adore!

What future bliss, he gives not thee to know,

But gives that hope to be thy blessing now.

Hope springs eternal in the human breast:

Man never is, but always to be blest:

The soul, uneasy and confin’d from home,

Rests and expatiates in a life to come.~

“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.~