Happy New Year 2011

Happy New Year 2011

The turning of the calendar from one year to the next has always been a time for summing up past experience, bidding farewell to those we have lost, renewing old friendships, making plans and resolutions, and expressing our hopes for the future.

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 brides, we sheet our dead.

We laugh, we weep, we hope, we fear,
And that’s the burden of the year.

The year, whose hopes were high and strong,
   Has now no hopes to wake;
Yet one hour more of jest and song
   For his familiar sake.
      Oh stay, oh stay,
One mirthful hour, and then away.

Days brightly came and calmly went,
   While yet he was our guest;
How cheerfully the week was spent!
   How sweet the seventh day’s rest!
      Oh stay, oh stay,
One golden hour, and then away.

Stay yet, my friends, a moment stay‚—
   Stay till the good old year,
So long companion of our way,
   Shakes hands, and leaves us here.
      Oh stay, oh stay,
One little hour, and then away.

The kindly year, his liberal hands
   Have lavished all his store.
And shall we turn from where he stands,
   Because he gives no more?
      Oh stay, oh stay,
One grateful hour, and then away.

Dear friends were with us, some who sleep
   Beneath the coffin-lid:
What pleasant memories we keep
   Of all they said and did!
      Oh stay, oh stay,
One tender hour, and then away.

Even while we sing, he smiles his last,
   And leaves our sphere behind.
The good old year is with the past;
   Oh be the new as kind!
      Oh stay, oh stay,
One parting strain, and then away.