Seasons of the Soul

The merry year is born
Like the bright berry from the naked thorn.

—Hartley Coleridge

The moments fly—a minute is gone!
The minutes fly—an hour is run!
The day is fled—the night is here!
Thus fly the weeks—the months, the year!

—William Fiske

A happy New Year! Grant that I
May bring no tear to any eye
When this New Year in time shall end
Let it be said I’ve played the friend,
Have lived and loved and labored here,
And made of it a happy year.

—Edgar Guest

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne!

    For auld lang syne, my dear, for auld lang syne.
    We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet, for auld lang syne.

And there’s a hand my trusty fiere,
And gie’s a hand o thine,
And we’ll tak a right guid-willie waught,
For auld lang syne.

    For auld lang syne, my dear, for auld lang syne.
    We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet, for auld lang syne.

And ye, who have met with Adversity’s blast,
And been bow’d to the earth by its fury;
To whom the Twelve Months, that have recently pass’d
Were as harsh as a prejudiced jury;
Still, fill to the Future! and join in our chime,
The regrets of remembrance to cozen,
And having obtained a new trial of time,
Shout in hopes of a kindlier dozen.

—Thomas Hood

Glory to God in highest heaven,
Who unto man His Son hath given;
While angels sing with tender mirth,
A glad new year to all the earth.

—Martin Luther

The earth feels old tonight
And we who live and stand on the cold rim
Face a new year.
It is raining everywhere
As if the rain were mercy,
As if the rain were peace,
Peace falling on our hair.
Open your hearts tonight, let them burn!
Let them light a way in the dark.
Let them one by one affirm there is hope for a staff:
I say it will flower in our hands,
We shall go garlanded.
There is the fine fresh stuff of faith for a coat:
We shall go warm.
We shall go on by the light of our hearts.
We shall burn mightily in the new year.
We shall go on together.
O you who stand alone on the rim of the earth and are cold,
I salute you here!

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

Each age has deemed the new-born year.
The fittest time for festal cheer.

—Sir Walter Scott

Long years have come and gone to us,
Who love thee, baby dear;
Untravelled are thy little feet,
And therefore only smiles shall greet
Thy happy first New Year.

—Harriett Stockall

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

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.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind,
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease,
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Clash! Clash! peal the bells;
New Year life their welcome tells,
Wealth of sunny days to be.
Sing the joy-bells gleefully:
“Golden hours and days we give,
Hours and days in which to live
In the ways of truth and right.”
So the bells ring forth with might,
Heralding a future bright:
Clash! Clash! peal the bells.

—G. Weatherly

Another fresh new year is here . . .
Another year to live!
To banish worry, doubt, and fear,
To love and laugh and give!
This bright new year is given me
To live each day with zest . . .
To daily grow and try to be
My highest and my best!
I have the opportunity
Once more to right some wrongs,
To pray for peace, to plant a tree,
And sing more joyful songs!

—William Arthur Ward

We meet today to thank Thee for the era done,
And Thee for the opening one.

—John Greenleaf Whittier

As the old year sinks down in Time’s ocean,
Stand ready to launch with the new,
And waste no regrets, no emotion,
As the masts and the spars pass from view.
Weep not if some treasures go under,
And sink in the rotten ship’s hold,
That blithe bonny barque sailing yonder
May bring you more wealth than the old.

For the world is for ever improving,
All the past is not worth one to-day,
And whatever deserves our true loving,
Is stronger than death or decay.
Old love, was it wasted devotion?
Old friends, were they weak or untrue?
Well, let them sink there in mid ocean,
And gaily sail on to the new.

Throw overboard toil misdirected,
Throw overboard ill-advised hope,
With aims which, your soul has detected,
Have self as their center and scope.
Throw overboard useless regretting
For deeds which you cannot undo,
And learn the great art of forgetting
Old things which embitter the new.

Sing who will of dead years departed,
I shroud them and bid them adieu,
And the song that I sing, happy-hearted,
Is a song of the glorious new.

What can be said in New Year rhymes,
That’s not been said a thousand times?
The new years come, the old years go,
We know we dream, we dream we know.
We rise up laughing with the light,
We lie down weeping with the night.
We hug the world until it stings,
We curse it then and sigh for wings.
We live, we love, we woo, we wed,
We wreathe our prides, we sheet our dead.
We laugh, we weep, we hope, we fear,
And that’s the burden of a year.

—Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Here’s to the bright New Year,
and a fond farewell to the old;
here’s to the things that are yet to come,
and to the memories that we hold.

—Author unknown