Lyric Poem · Hope
Had I presumed to hope
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“Had I presumed to hope” by Emily Dickinson — quilloak.com/poems/had-i-presumed-to-hope
Quick facts
- Poem
- Had I presumed to hope
- Poet
- Emily Dickinson
- Length
- 16 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Hope, Death & Loss
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
- 16 lines · 4 quatrains
- End rhyme
- No regular perfect end rhyme. The poem may still be using slant rhyme, assonance, or internal echo, which this check does not score.
- Line length
- Consistent with short metre. Two short lines, one longer, one short (6.6.8.6) — the short hymn stanza.
Want the rules this form is measured against? Read what makes a lyric poem, or run your own draft through the form checker to see the same measurements on your lines. How we measure · Report a mistake
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
- PoetryDBHad I presumed to hope 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 b5ad85240d4401cf…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.