The New Year

THE NEW YEAR. (For the Improvement Era.) Hail Winter's Spring! — When the heart flowers — Peep out, peep out, oh, purple violet Of Love, hide thou no longer in the leaves Of thy reserve. 'Tis time to show the world That thou art here. Ah me, and what a Spring : — All summer's flowers lavished from the first. "Here's pansies — they're for thoughts" — old thoughts made new — New love for the old loves time holds more dear. Here are Forget-me-nots — smiles of those eyes That looked most kindly on you. Here's a thing — A leaf from what we scarcely call a shrub, Almost a weed — the half restrained, half free Movement of kinship from a beggar's hand We partly touched in passing. Sunflower here Speaks of a friend that laughed and made her laugh Golden, that desert wastes might gleam more fair. And here's a primrose, fragile, heavenly sweet, The fragrance of a baby's mouth that smiled. Ho ! old King Winter, but thy garden's fair ! Yon icicle hung pendant from the roof Is never water-gyved by Jailor Frost, 'Tis heaven's white orchid, rarest of rare flowers, That caught within its insect-loving lips Six little glow worms speeding from the sun, Six little glow worms that can fly so fast They make all places one.

THE NEW YEAR. 247 Now, what is this Fair, vapory, feathery thing my breath throws out? Ay, here's a fancy — 'Tis that splendid thing That opej but once a year, the exquisite Night blooming cerus that in Winter's Spring We dub Forgetfulness. Low on the graves Of all dead hatreds, dead desires, dead griefs, Lay this white, sheeny bloom. No more a tho't Shall go their silent way. No more a tear Shall damp their sward. No more a hand shall clench Or brows grow knotted with the weight of them. Let them rot where they lie! and fertilize The earth to fairer things — Who cares? — not we! — The world is beautiful — it teems with Life — God! who would stop to haggle with the dead? — The teeming world ! — It stretches like a fan, 'Tis all outspread! — We stand upon the point, And that great unknown, that vast wondrous rest Is all BEFORE! Oh, ring, ring out, ye bells, Ye bells of Yuletide that proclaim the Birth ; Ring till that farther season that chimes forth "Lo, He is ris'n!" I stand upon the Bridge That links ye both and lets no stream divide — The bridge of the ETERNAL ! All may go, Cycle on cycle, endless, infinite, Birth, Death and Rising, Ring, oh, ring, ye bells, There cometh aye a time when all is NEW ! Kate Thomas.