SONG OF THE NEW YEAR.

I come, I come on untiring wing,
     As swift as a ray of light;
From the far off realms of immensity,
     I come to claim my right.
As the blushing Morn is newly born

     From the depths of startled Night,
Even so do I, Phœnix-like, arise,
From the last faint breath the Old Year sighs.

I come, I come to rule o’er a world
     Of mingled Joy and Woe;

The former alone ’tis mine to bring,
     Of the latter ye’ve had enow!
Choose, then, ye millions of thinking souls;
     Who wills it can bestow
A share of the joy that is needed here,

To banish the ills ye hold so dear.

Choose, choose, ye vessels of mighty thoughts
     That are given from God to man;
Would ye revel in black iniquity [Page 172]
     Through life’s uncertain span!

Or lay before heaven those acts of love
     That Angels are pleased to scan?
Choose—choose—in that choice are the Future’s seeds,
I am here as a witness to all your deeds.

I know but little of earthly strife,

     And less of earthly care,
But I must study the dark of life,
     As well as the bright and fair,
Though I come of a mild, celestial race,
     That has never known despair,

From a land where a million suns are known
To shed their light on our monarch’s throne.

And much of that light travels down to earth;
     The Sun and the Moon on high,
And the Stars, from their silent watch-towers,

     Spread it round through the tranquil sky;
And the wings of Angels that come unseen,
     But are ever hovering nigh,
Are evermore bringing, by day and night,
To the dwellers on earth, that celestial light.

I, too, on my mission of peace, bring down
     The light of the living day,
To illume the path of earth’s hopeless ones,
     Who in evil have gone astray,
As well as to guide the steps of those [Page 173]

     Who are walking in wisdom’s way;
Oh! spurn it not, nor quench its beams
In the evil that runs through earth’s foul streams.

Like you, ye dwellers on earth’s fair soil,
     I, also, must sojourn here,

Till, having performed my appointed task,
     I am winged to another sphere,
Where I will meet—in the vast beyond—
     The ghosts of each by-gone year,
Where the waters of Time’s unfathomed sea

Roll on to the shores of Eternity.

And many who now are flushed with health,
     Will I meet on that distant strand,
For well will I know my own fair flowers,
     When they bloom in the spirit-land,

Where each glad year that has wandered here,
     Is chief of the goodly band
That during his stay has been called away
To the realms that smile in endless day.

I come, I come on untiring wing,

     As swift as a ray of light,
From the far off realms of immensity
     I come to enforce my right.
Let there be Joy through the universe,
     And let Sorrow feel its might,

For in Joy there is Wisdom, and Strength and Love,
And Sorrow lives not in the realms above. [Page 174]