Poems and Essays By the late William Caldwell Roscoe. (Edited with a Prefatory Memoir, by his Brother-in-law, Richard Holt Hutton) |
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MIDNIGHT ON NEW YEAR'S EVE. |
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 | Poems and Essays |  |
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MIDNIGHT ON NEW YEAR'S EVE.
Hark, the deep tongue of midnight tolls no more;And now Time, like a troubled spectre, stands
On the year's edge, and with lean trembling hands
Turns his great glass. Mark how the grains do pour
In glittering showers upon the glassy floor,
So thickly clustered with the golden sands
That it might seem he bore the ocean-strands,
And poised the circle of the sea-swept shore.
These are your hours that roll, O mortal men!
Fast ripening for the sickle of fell Time,
Now the revolving year returns again,
New-gilt resolves and hopes in all their prime;
Alas, that these should, like Time's trembling hours,
Fall fast and bright at first, to end in wavering showers!
1843-4.
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