CHRIS SPHEERIS & ANTHONY MAZZELLA-Always
Gustave Leonard de Jonghe Art
New Year: A Dialogue
MORTAL:
THE NEW YEAR:
THE NEW YEAR:
THE NEW YEAR:
THE NEW YEAR:
THE NEW YEAR:
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
“The night is cold, the hour is late,
the world is bleak and drear;
Who is it knocking at my door?”
“I am Good Cheer.”
MORTAL:
“Your voice is strange; I know you not;
in shadows dark I grope.
What seek you here?”
“Friend, let me in; my name is Hope.”
MORTAL:
“And mine is Failure;
you but mock the life you seek to bless.
Pass on.”
“Nay, open wide the door; I am Success.”
MORTAL:
“But I am ill and spent with pain;
too late has come your wealth.
I cannot use it.”
“Listen, friend; I am Good Health.”
MORTAL:
“Now, wide I fling my door.
Come in, and your fair statements prove.”
“But you must open, too, your heart, for I am Love.”
Farnand Toussaint Art
Old and New Year Ditties
New Year met me somewhat sad:
New Year coming on apace
Watch with me blessèd spirits, who delight
Passing away, saith the World, passing away:
Christina Rossetti
Old Year leaves me tired,
Stripped of favourite things I had
Baulked of much desired:
Yet farther on my road to-day
God willing, farther on my way.
What have you to give me?
Bring you scathe, or bring you grace,
Face me with an honest face;
You shall not deceive me:
Be it good or ill, be it what you will,
It needs shall help me on my road,
My rugged way to heaven, please God.
Watch with me, men, women, and children dear,
You whom I love, for whom I hope and fear,
Watch with me this last vigil of the year.
Some hug their business, some their pleasure-scheme;
Some seize the vacant hour to sleep or dream;
Heart locked in heart some kneel and watch apart.
All through the holy night to walk in white,
Or take your ease after the long-drawn fight.
I know not if they watch with me: I know
They count this eve of resurrection slow,
And cry, “How long?” with urgent utterance strong.
Watch with me Jesus, in my loneliness:
Though others say me nay, yet say Thou yes;
Though others pass me by, stop Thou to bless.
Yea, Thou dost stop with me this vigil night;
To-night of pain, to-morrow of delight:
I, Love, am Thine; Thou, Lord my God, art mine.
Chances, beauty and youth sapped day by day:
Thy life never continueth in one stay.
Is the eye waxen dim, is the dark hair changing to grey
That hath won neither laurel nor bay?
I shall clothe myself in Spring and bud in May:
Thou, root-stricken, shalt not rebuild thy decay
On my bosom for aye.
Then I answered: Yea.
Passing away, saith my Soul, passing away:
With its burden of fear and hope, of labour and play;
Hearken what the past doth witness and say:
Rust in thy gold, a moth is in thine array,
A canker is in thy bud, thy leaf must decay.
At midnight, at cockcrow, at morning, one certain day
Lo, the Bridegroom shall come and shall not delay:
Watch thou and pray.
Then I answered: Yea.
Passing away, saith my God, passing away:
Winter passeth after the long delay:
New grapes on the vine, new figs on the tender spray,
Turtle calleth turtle in Heaven’s May.
Though I tarry wait for Me, trust Me, watch and pray:
Arise, come away, night is past and lo it is day,
My love, My sister, My spouse, thou shalt hear Me say.
Then I answered: Yea.
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Alfred Tennyson
Then sing, young hearts that are full of cheer,
With never a thought of sorrow;
The old goes out, but the glad young year
Comes merrily in tomorrow.
Emily Miller
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