Renewal

These sounds sonorous rolling!These vibrant tones and clear!Listen! The bells are tollingThe requiem of the year:The year that dies, as mute it liesMid fallen leaves and sere!

Now by the fading embersThat on the hearthstone glow,How sadly one remembersThe things of long ago:The wistful things, with flame-bright wings,That vanished long ago!

The self-effacing sorrow,The generous desire,The pledges for the morrow,Enkindled at this fire!—Enkindled here, O dying year!Where smoulders low thy pyre.

What hope and what ambition,What dreams beyond recall!And look we for fruition,To find them ashes all?Is life the wraith of love—of faith?Then let the darkness fall!

The sparks—how fast they dwindle!How faint their being glows!Quickly the fire rekindle—Ah, quickly! e'er it goes!Woo living breath from the lips of death!—From ashes bring the rose!······· Kind God! The bells, in gladness!The rose of hope hath bloomed!For, consecrating sadness,Life hath its own resumed,And welcomes here the new-born year—A phœnix, unconsumed!