Love and Friendship - An 1841 Poem

By Wm. Leggett.

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 warbles past,

The little snow bird still remains,

And cherups midst the blast.

 

Love, like that bird, when friendship's throng

With fortunes sun depart,

Still lingers with its cheerful song,

And nestles on the heart.

August 10, 1841. Mecklenburg Jeffersonian 1(23): 4.