There are a lot of bad things happening at the moment, and understandably, a lot of negativity floating around. Here is a list of my favourite 5 classic poems about hope to help you survive 2022.

Each poem is accompanied by a brief commentary on the poem’s specific perspectives on hope, and/or the poet’s literary techniques, as well as a link to the source for the poem itself.

List of poems:

• “Hope” is the thing with feathers by Emily Dickinson
• Light breaks where no sun shines by Dylan Thomas
• Sonnet 29 by William Shakespeare
• A Lesson by William Wordsworth
• An Epilogue by John Masefield

“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.

Emily Dickinson

Taken from: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42889/hope-is-the-thing-with-feathers-314

Brief Commentary:

Emily Dickinson had us at the first line. The dainty and picturesque metaphor of hope as a bird is carried throughout this short poem without losing itself to cliché. I also love the rhythm in this poem. Dickinson uses regular metre, with alternating iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter, yet prevents it from feeling too sing-songy with the clever interposition of em-dashes. This combination of techniques transforms a simple message about hope being resilient and selfless into a charming and memorable piece of literature.

I’ve written at length about the merits of Dickinson’s other poetry in this blog post.

Light breaks where no sun shines

BY DYLAN THOMAS

Light breaks where no sun shines;
Where no sea runs, the waters of the heart
Push in their tides;
And, broken ghosts with glow-worms in their heads,
The things of light
File through the flesh where no flesh decks the bones.

A candle in the thighs
Warms youth and seed and burns the seeds of age;
Where no seed stirs,
The fruit of man unwrinkles in the stars,
Bright as a fig;
Where no wax is, the candle shows its hairs.

Dawn breaks behind the eyes;
From poles of skull and toe the windy blood
Slides like a sea;
Nor fenced, nor staked, the gushers of the sky
Spout to the rod
Divining in a smile the oil of tears.

Night in the sockets rounds,
Like some pitch moon, the limit of the globes;
Day lights the bone;
Where no cold is, the skinning gales unpin
The winter's robes;
The film of spring is hanging from the lids.

Light breaks on secret lots,
On tips of thought where thoughts smell in the rain;
When logics dies,
The secret of the soil grows through the eye,
And blood jumps in the sun;
Above the waste allotments the dawn halts.

- Dylan Thomas

Taken from: https://poets.org/poem/light-breaks-where-no-sun-shines

Brief Commentary

There is so much underlying this poem. At first glance, it may not even seem hopeful at all, due to numerous connotations of death and decay. The poem’s message lies in the fierce contrast between descriptions of light next to depictions of darkness. Dylan Thomas is another of those classic poets who simply thrives off creating intense imagery. In each stanza, light is shown to always prevail. One other thing to note is that the sources of light in his poem come from within nature, embodying his belief that we can all find reasons for hope in the natural world, which are stronger than any of the damages caused by our own human devices.

Sonnet 29

BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
(Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven’s gate;
       For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
       That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

- William Shakespeare

Taken from: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45090/sonnet-29-when-in-disgrace-with-fortune-and-mens-eyes

Brief Commentary

It’s very hard to be brief when you’re talking about Shakespeare. Unlike the first two poem, which used imagery of, this sonnet focuses on how personal relationships are a source of hope and sustenance. The volta (“turn”) in this sonnet occurs at the 9th line, at which point the poem’s narrator reminds himself that there is still love and beauty in his life, which make him feel luckier and wealthier than even a king. A bird simile does sneak in towards the end (“Like to the lark at break of day arising/From sullen earth)” because birds are, after all, a rather timeless symbol of hope and new beginnings.

A Lesson

BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

There is a flower, the lesser celandine,
That shrinks like many more from cold and rain,
And the first moment that the sun may shine,
Bright as the sun himself, ’tis out again!

When hailstones have been falling, swarm on swarm,
Or blasts the green field and the trees distrest,
Oft have I seen it muffled up from harm
In close self-shelter, like a thing at rest.

But lately, one rough day, this flower I pass’d,
And recognized it, though an alter’d form,
Now standing forth an offering to the blast,
And buffeted at will by rain and storm.

I stopp’d and said, with inly-mutter’d voice,
“It doth not love the shower, nor seek the cold;
This neither is its courage nor its choice,
But its necessity in being old.

“The sunshine may not cheer it, nor the dew;
It cannot help itself in its decay;
Stiff in its members, wither’d, changed of hue,”—
And, in my spleen, I smiled that it was gray.

To be a prodigal’s favourite—then, worse truth,
A miser’s pensioner—behold our lot!
O man! that from thy fair and shining youth
Age might but take the things youth needed not!

- William Wordsworth

Taken from: https://dailypoetry.me/william-wordsworth/lesson/

Brief Commentary:

Wordsworth puts a different spin on the theme of hope. His poem claims that with age and experience, we become braver and more resilient. He does frame it more as a “necessity in being old,” but his final lines still speak of the shedding of youthful fears and trepidations in a favourable way. 

Side note: I had never heard of the lesser celandine plant before, so I looked it up to help me picture the flower while reading the poem. It looks rather like a cross between a buttercup and a daisy, two simple yet endearing lawn flowers. I was interested to read that it is poisonous to livestock and has been listed as a weed. Does that undermine, or add to, Wordsworth’s poem? It’s up to you to decide.

An Epilogue

BY JOHN MASEFIELD

I have seen flowers come in stony places
And kind things done by men with ugly faces,
And the gold cup won by the worst horse at the races,
So I trust, too.

- John Masefield

Taken from: https://allpoetry.com/poem/8495885-An-Epilogue-by-John-Masefield

Brief Commentary

I like this poem because it is short and sweet, even more concise than Emily Dickinson’s poem. It’s got an irregular, yet flowing metre, and the use of parallel structure in the first three lines enforces its uplifting tone. What a pleasing poem to finish off the list.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading my list of 5 classic poems about hope to help you survive 2022. This list is based on personal preference, but there are hundreds of hopeful poems out there for you to turn to when the news gets rough and the world gets tough. Let’s hope the rest of 2022 will go better for everyone.

If you have any poem suggestions or interpretations, feel free to comment below!