Lyric Poem · Hope

A great Hope fell

by Emily Dickinson

Reading room

1A great Hope fell

2You heard no noise

3The Ruin was within

4Oh cunning wreck that told no tale

5And let no Witness in

6The mind was built for mighty Freight

7For dread occasion planned

8How often foundering at Sea

9Ostensibly, on Land

10A not admitting of the wound

11Until it grew so wide

12That all my Life had entered it

13And there were troughs beside

14A closing of the simple lid

15That opened to the sun

16Until the tender Carpenter

17Perpetual nail it down —

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“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

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Shape: 17 lines · 4 stanzas of 4–5 lines

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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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Lyric Poem Hope Nature

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