Hope is a thing with feathers

Hope is a 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.

--Emily Dickinson

(The chicken's name is Louise, and she is from the book Louise, The Adventures of a Chicken, by Kate DiCamillo.)