Love More Loyal than Friendship

The birds, when winter shades the sky,

Fly o'er the seas away,

Where laughing isles in sunshine lie,

And summer breezes play.

 

And thus the friends that flutter near,

While fortune's sun is warm,

Are startled if a cloud appear,

And fly before the storm.

 

But when from winter's howling plains

Each other warbler's past,

The little snow-bird still remains,

And chirrups 'midst the blast.

 

Love, like that bird, when Friendship's throng

With fortune's sun depart;

Still lingers with its cheerful song,

And nestles on the heart.

February 17, 1852. Grant River Times 1(33): 4. From the Ladies' Keepsake.