The Poem Reader
The Poem Reader
The Year
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The Year

By Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919)

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 prides, we sheet our dead. 

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

Image via Encyclopædia Britannica

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The Poem Reader
The Poem Reader
For lovers of language. Every week a new poem read aloud.
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Dominic Frisby