Time & Brevity

The Year

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox 1850–1919

From Maurine and Other Poems (1888)

Time & Brevity

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.

MLA

Wilcox, Ella Wheeler. “The Year.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/wilcox/146/.

Chicago

Wilcox, Ella Wheeler. “The Year.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/wilcox/146/.

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