Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A HAPPY NEW YEAR, by MARGARET ELIZABETH MUNSON SANGSTER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A HAPPY NEW YEAR, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: All robed in ethereal whiteness
Last Line: Look forth on a happy new year.
Alternate Author Name(s): Van Deth, Gerrit, Mrs.
Subject(s): Holidays; New Year


ALL robed in ethereal whiteness
Glides in the first morn of the year;
And round it a wonderful brightness
Is floating, in token of cheer.
The glad and the sorrowful-hearted
Alike look for blessings to be,
Ere it pass to the ages departed,
And lost in eternity's sea.

Already the year which has left us
Seems old as the Pyramids are.
It taught or enriched or bereft us,
Yet now hath receded as far—
As wholly hath lessened and faded
From vision, and melted from clasp,—
As the years which Rome's purple o'ershaded,
When the world was a toy in her grasp.

Even yesterday past groweth hoary,
Allied to traditions of eld,
Partaking the gloom and the glory
The cycles uncounted have held.
And the new year, with breathless to-morrows,
With raptures and yearnings and sighs,
Defeats and disasters and sorrows,
Has Eden's lost youth in our eyes.

Not new, like the coin golden glinting,
Completed, that falls from the mint,—
Nor new, like the broidery hinting
Of splendor in ever fresh tint,—
But new, like the child onward gazing
At life all before it unknown,
Like the prince when the vassals are raising
Their banners in love round his throne.

No word of its words hath been spoken,
No deed of its deeds hath been done;
Nor the bread of its benisons broken,
Nor its battles in bravery won.
Still tarry its songs for the singers,
Still slumber its manifold looms;
Its bells are yet waiting the ringers,
And vacant are standing its tombs.

Though it bear for us wisdom or folly,
In silence it utters no sign;
Through our garlands of cedar and holly
There murmurs no message divine,—
Save this, that with loyal endeavor,
And heart of all enmity clear,
Who welcomes it gayly may ever
Look forth on a Happy New Year.





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