THE OLD YEAR AND THE NEW.

Otago Witness, Issue 1832, 31 December 1886, Page 13

THE OLD YEAR AND THE NEW.

How swift they go, Lite's many years, With their winds of woe And their storms ct tears. And their darkest of nights whose shadowy elopes, Are lit with the flashes of starriest hopes. And their sunshiny days on whose calm heavens loom Theclouds of the tempest— the shadows of gloom ! And ah ! we, pray • With a grief so drenr. That the.jears may btay Wheu their graves are near ; Tho' the brow of to-morrows be rad ant and bright, With love an<l with beauty, w.tli life and with light, The dead hearts of yesterdays, cold 011 the bier, To the hearts that survive them, are evermore dear. For the heart so true To each Old Year oleaves ; Tho 1 the hand ot the New Flowery garlands weaves. But the flowers of the future, tho' fragrant and fair, With the pasts withered leaflets may never compare ; For dear is each dead leaf —and dearer each thorn, Iv the wreaths which the brows of our past years have worn. Yea I men will cling With a love to the laafc, And wildly fling Their arms around the past ! An the vine that clings to the oak that falls, A? the ivy twines around the crumbled walls , For the dust of the past some heart's higher prize Than the stars that flash out from the future's bright skies.

And why not so? The oid, old, old years, They knew a d they know All our hopes and tears ; We walked by their side, and we told them each grief, And they kissed off our tears while they whispered relief ; And the stories of hearts that may not be revealed In the hearts of the dead years are buried nnd sealed.

Let the New Year sing * At the Old Year's grave; Will the New Year bring What the Old Year gave ? Ah ! the Stranger Year trips over the snows, And his brow is wreathed with many a rose ; But. how many Ihorus do the roses conceal Which the roses, when withered, shall so soon reveal ?

Let tin New Year amile While the Old Year dies : _ In how short a while Shulll the smiles be sighs ? Yea ! Stranger- Year, thou hnst many a charm, And thy face is fair and thy greeting warm ; But, dearer than thou - in his shroud of snowsIs the furrowed face of the year that goes. Yea ! bright New Year, O'er all the earth, With song and cheer. They will hail thy birth ; They will trust thy words in a single hour, They will love thy face, they will laud thy power, For the New has charms which the did has not, And the Stranger's face makes the Friend's forgot. Father Ryan.