Historical Poem
Another Year
Good Housekeeping, January, 1896, p. 1.
"Time cuts down all, both great and small,"
And fruit when ripe is sure to fall.
Another year of labor and recompense has birth,
Another year of living, and all that life is worth,
Another year of hopes and fears, with many unfulfilled,
Another year of beating hearts that will ere its close be stilled.
Another year of mortal birth, of marrying and death,
Another year of error's ways, of sadly wasted breath,
Another year of noble deeds, of welcome words and ways,
Another year of pain and plaint, of songs and hymns of praise.
Another year of progress, of preaching, and of prayer,
Another year of politics, brazen, bold and bare,
Another year of mountebanks, of ridicule and show,
Another year of "Gallagher," and bids to "let him go."
Another year of sharp finance, and of feeble financiers,
Another year of scientists, and scientific sneers.
Another year of journalistic wit and wisdom brains,
Another year of rolling out their tongues and taking pains."
Another year of folderol, and funny-man nonsense,
Another year of pictures bold, and literary pretense,
Another year of scribbler's itch taking on pretentious airs,
Another year of the "new woman" coming down the stairs.
Another year of the man who waits, and wilts, and weeps,
Another year of the other one who never stops nor sleeps,
Another year of blatent bores, who boast of brains and brawn,
Another year of darkened souls, longing for the "dawn."
Another year of faithlessness, of fraud and froth and folly,
Another year of merriment, of mirth and being jolly,
Another year of gloom and grief, of sorrow, and the sad,
Another year of goodness, of glory, and the glad.
Another year of cycle wheels, with motorcycles coming,
Another year of jokes about rich plumbers and bad plumbing,
Another year of "witty" mother-in-law recital,
Another year of stealing brains without making a requital.
Another year of electrical trolley rails and lightings,
Another year of international rights, and wrongs, and writings,
Another year of fancy foreign fun and interference,
Another year of racing yachts, with talks of fouls in clearance,
Another year of tennis, golf, horse-racing and baseballs,
Another year of finding out the curse of "puts and calls,"
Another year of "corners" close in oil, in wheat and flour,
Another year of patent ways for making fortunes in an hour.
Another year of waiting for what it finds and brings,
Another year of many unknown and unthought-of things,
Another year of looking for what is not yet here,
Another year of birth, of brief being, and a bier.
***
This poem appears in
A Christmas Wish
Victorian Winter Poetry for Christmas and New Year's
Back to Historical Articles Index
If you enjoyed this poem you might also like:
Maxims for the New Year (1889)
Welcomes and Adieus (Poem—1896)
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