Poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

The Year

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.

1. Earnestness
2. Sonnets of Sorrow. 18. The wise ones tell me that my heart's wild clamour
3. The Crimes of Peace
4. Our Lives
5. The Empty Bowl

Carl Sandburg The Year ("A storm of white petals")

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