Poem by James Elroy Flecker

A New Year's Carol

Awake, awake! The world is young,
For all its weary years of thought:
The starkest fights must still be fought,
The most surprising songs be sung.


And those who have no other Gods
May still behold, if they bestir,
The windy amphitheatre
Where dawn the timeless periods.


Then hear the shouting-voice of men
Magniloquently rise and ring:
Their flashing eyes and measured swing
Prove that the world is young again.


I was beyond the hills, and heard
That old and fervent Goddess call,
Whose voice is like a waterfall,
And sweeter than the singing-bird.


O stubborn arms of rosy youth,
Break down your other Gods, and turn
To where her dauntless eyeballs burn,—
The silent pools of Light and Truth.

1. November Eves
2. The Second Sonnet of Bathrolaire
3. The First Sonnet of Bathrolaire
4. A Western Voyage
5. Rioupéroux

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