Hope Is a Thing With Flesh

By Bradley Yam, SY ‘21. Bradley is majoring in Ethics, Politics & Economics.

This year I’m celebrating Easter all by myself in quarantine. It feels surreal to hear the sound of the hotel door latching irrevocably shut, knowing that it will stay shut for the next fourteen days. In here, it’s easy to hope. I could stream the Easter service from my local church, sing along with the songs and be satisfied with warm feelings and abstract ideas. This is the kind of hope of Dickinson’s “hope is a thing with feathers”, hope that whispers in the soul but asks nothing of you at all.

As much as I love Dickinson, that [hope] is too light and ethereal to stake action upon—only the shadow of the real thing.