简单介绍一下诗人：Emily Elizabeth Dickinson艾米丽.迪金森(December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life.

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这是一个神秘的女诗人，因为生前离群索居，世人对她及她的诗作知之甚少，直至其离世后才由家人结集出版，结果，大受欢迎，与同时期的大诗人Walt Whitman（惠特曼）齐名。

现今留下的诗歌大概1700多首，当中不乏很多传世名篇，但是很多没有标题，于是通常做法是以其中的第一诗行作为题目。

她的诗非常短小精悍，题材也比较广泛，还写过若干与死亡的意向有关的诗歌。“痛苦和狂喜，死亡与永生，是迪金森诗歌永恒的旋律。”

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

注释：

1.perch:栖息

2.gale:暴风

3.abash:使不安/羞愧

4.crumb:面包屑

（注意词句的倒装，由于押韵和节奏的需要，语序的调整在英文格律诗中非常常见。另外，诗歌中充满令人印象深刻的形象表达，metaphor, 暗喻。 ）