11.

He lieth still: he doth not move :
He will not see the dawn of day.
He hath no other life above.
He gave me a friend, and a true true love,
And the New-year will take 'em away.

Old year, you must not go ;
So long as you have been with us,
Such joy as you have seen with us,
Old year, you shall not go.

111.

He froth'd his bumpers to the brim;
A jollier year we shall not see.
But though his eyes are waxing dim,
And though his foes speak ill of him,
He was a friend to me.

Old year, you shall not die ;
We did so laugh and cry with you,
I've half a mind to die with you,
Old year, if you must die.

He was full of joke and jest,
But all his merry quips are o'er.
To see him die, across the waste
His son and heir doth ride post-haste,
But he 'll be dead before.

Every one for his own. ·
The night is starry and cold, my friend,
And the New-year blithe and bold, my friend,
Comes up to take his own.

How hard he breathes ! over the snow
I heard just now the crowing cock.
The shadows flicker to and fro :
The cricket chirps: the light burns low :
'Tis nearly twelve o'clock.

Shake hands, before you die.
Old year, we 'll dearly rue for you :
What is it we can do for you?
Speak out before you die.

vi.
His face is growing sharp and thin.
Alack! our friend is gone.
Close up his eyes : tie up his chin :
Step from the corpse, and let him in
That standeth there alone,

And waiteth at the door.
There's a new foot on the floor, my friend,
And a new face at the door, my friend,
A new face at the door.

The wind, that beats the mountain, blows

More softly round the open wold, And gently comes the world to those

That are cast in gentle mould.

II.

And me this knowledge bolder made,

Or else I had not dared to flow
In these words toward you, and invade

Even with a verse your holy woe.

III.

'Tis strange that those we lean on most,

Those in whose laps our limbs are nursed, Fall into shadow, soonest lost :

Those we love first are taken first.

IV.

God gives us love. Something to love

He lends us; but, when love is grown To ripeness, that on which it throve

Falls off, and love is left alone.

This is the curse of time. Alas!

In grief I am not all unlearn’d; Once thro' mine own doors Death did pass ;

One went, who never hath return’d.

vi. He will not smile—not speak to me

Once more. Two years his chair is seen Empty before us. That was he

Without whose life I had not been.

VII.

Your loss is rarer; for this star

Rose with you thro' a little arc Of heaven, nor having wander'd far

Shot on the sudden into dark.