Dramatic Scenes With Other Poems, Now First Printed. By Barry Cornwall [i.e. Bryan Waller Procter]. Illustrated |
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THE FIRST DAY OF THE YEAR. |
 | Dramatic Scenes |  |
THE FIRST DAY OF THE YEAR.
As one who enters on a roadThe end whereof no sight can reach;
Where they who bear Sin's heavy load
Are numberless (so sages teach)
As sands upon the wild sea-beach:
Where Showers and Sunshine, Night and Day,
Like Ghosts go glimmering on their way;
Where Friends and Foes, where Right and Wrong,
And all that doth to Life belong,—
The shadowy Past, the grim To-come,
Around our footsteps sink and soar;
Where Death goes beating on his drum;
And that great Sea without a shore
Gleams in the distance, while a Voice
Cries out, ‘Let no one here rejoice!’
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Enter upon thy paths, O year!
Thy paths, which all who breathe must tread,
Which lead the Living to the Dead,
I enter; for it is my doom
To tread thy labyrinthine gloom;
To note who 'round me watch and wait;
To love a few; perhaps to hate;
And do all duties of my fate.
| Dramatic Scenes | |