Lyric Poem · Hope
A great Hope fell
A great Hope fell
You heard no noise
The Ruin was within
Oh cunning wreck that told no tale
And let no Witness in
The mind was built for mighty Freight
For dread occasion planned
How often foundering at Sea
Ostensibly, on Land
A not admitting of the wound
Until it grew so wide
That all my Life had entered it
And there were troughs beside
A closing of the simple lid
That opened to the sun
Until the tender Carpenter
Perpetual nail it down —
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“A great Hope fell” by Emily Dickinson — quilloak.com/poems/a-great-hope-fell
Quick facts
- Poem
- A great Hope fell
- Poet
- Emily Dickinson
- Length
- 17 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Hope, Nature
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 17 lines · 4 stanzas of 4–5 lines
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- Emily Dickinson1830–1886
- Source record
- PoetryDBA great Hope fell by emily-dickinson, PoetryDB transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- Not recorded in the imported source
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 7e3a5e2f0903cdb7…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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