Contrariwise: Literary Tattoos Over 600 tattoos from books, poetry, music, and other sources.

Hope

This tattoo belongs to E.

This poem was one of the first poems I ever read. The imagery and the power of the poem has stuck with me, more then a decade later. I find daily inspiration with this poem. There are several things that give me hope. Two are expressed in the initials snuck into the branch---JCG which are the initials of both my brother and my grandfather. Without them, I would be adrift in the storm that is life. I love owls, and always have, but I must say that my love of them has increased since my significant other has started to call me his owl. All in all, it makes for a tattoo that I adore.

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.

— Hope is the Thing With Feathers by Emily Dickinson

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