'FRIENDS that we know not,' -- late we said. We know you now, true friends, who still, Where'er Time's tireless scythe has led, Have wrought with us through good and ill -- Have toiled the weary sheaves to fill. Hail then, O known and tried! -- and you, Who know us not to-day, but will -- Hail to you all, Old Friends and New! With no scant store our barns are fed: The full sacks bulge by door and sill, With grain the threshing-floors are spread, The piled grist feeds the humming mill; And -- but for you -- all this were nil, A harvest of lean ears and few, But for your service, friends, and skill; Hail to you all, Old Friends and New! But hark! -- Is that the Reaper's tread? Come, let us glean once more until Here, where the snowdrop lifts its head, The days bring round the daffodil; Till winds the last June roses kill, And Autumn fades; till, 'neath the yew, Once more we cry, with Winter chill, Hail to you all, Old Friends and New! ENVOY. Come! Unto all a horn we spill, Brimmed with a foaming Yule-tide brew, Hail to you all, by vale and hill! -- Hail to you all, Old Friends and New! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE EXPANDED COMPOSITION by CLARENCE MAJOR SIXTEEN MONTHS by CARL SANDBURG IN HOSPITAL: 28. DISCHARGED by WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY SONNET TO THE MOON by HELEN MARIA WILLIAMS ECCLESIASTICAL SONNETS: PART 1: 16. PERSUASION by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH |