GOOD-NIGHT, sweet year, that brought to me Dear friends to love, rare wealth to hold, That gave me flowers for memory More precious far than fleeting gold. Good-night, sweet year, wherein I read Full many a page with rare delight; Thy latest hour will soon have fled Oh, pleasant year, sweet year, good-night! Good-night, sad year, that reft away Some hopes I cherished; gave the pain Of disillusion; dimmed the day With wrecks of labor wrought in vain. Good-night, sad year, that sometime knew My pillow wet with bitter tears, Good-night, sad year, that drifteth too Far hence on Time's black sea of years. Good-night, blithe year, that to the home Came smiling with so gay a face, Bade roses bloom in hall and room, Sent small feet pattering through the place, That woke such bells of melody As touch the eternal chords that ring Where evermore the ransomed be And saints for aye behold the King. Good-night, brave year, that gave me strength, And helped my will to overcome In struggles, where the foe, at length Baffled and beaten, left me dumb, Yet thrilling with victorious song! Good-night, brave year! I fain would keep Thy secret still to right the wrong, But thou art weary. Rest and sleep. Good-night, O year, most sorrowful Seen from the earth side, ache and loss And clouded dawns, and dear ones gone, Have deeply stamped thee with the cross. Good-night, O sorrowful, sweet year, Sweet with the promise of the day, Where heaven's own morning shall appear And all the shadows flee away. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SLANTS AT BUFFALO, NEW YORK by CARL SANDBURG SECOND BOOK OF AIRS: SONG 18 by THOMAS CAMPION EROS (1) by RALPH WALDO EMERSON THE MEDITATION OF THE OLD FISHERMAN by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS LILIES: 14. THE AWAKING by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) |