The Complete Works of James Whitcomb Riley in ten volumes |
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SONG OF THE NEW YEAR |
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The Complete Works of James Whitcomb Riley | ||
153
SONG OF THE NEW YEAR
I heard the bells at midnight
Ring in the dawning year;
And above the clanging chorus
Of the song, I seemed to hear
A choir of mystic voices
Flinging echoes, ringing clear,
From a band of angels winging
Through the haunted atmosphere:
“Ring out the shame and sorrow,
And the misery and sin,
That the dawning of the morrow
May in peace be ushered in.”
Ring in the dawning year;
And above the clanging chorus
Of the song, I seemed to hear
A choir of mystic voices
Flinging echoes, ringing clear,
From a band of angels winging
Through the haunted atmosphere:
“Ring out the shame and sorrow,
And the misery and sin,
That the dawning of the morrow
May in peace be ushered in.”
And I thought of all the trials
The departed years had cost,
And the blooming hopes and pleasures
That are withered now and lost;
And with joy I drank the music
Stealing o'er the feeling there
As the spirit song came pealing
On the silence everywhere:
“Ring out the shame and sorrow,
And the misery and sin,
That the dawning of the morrow
May in peace be ushered in.”
The departed years had cost,
And the blooming hopes and pleasures
That are withered now and lost;
And with joy I drank the music
Stealing o'er the feeling there
As the spirit song came pealing
On the silence everywhere:
“Ring out the shame and sorrow,
And the misery and sin,
That the dawning of the morrow
May in peace be ushered in.”
154
And I listened as a lover
To an utterance that flows
In syllables like dewdrops
From the red lips of a rose,
Till the anthem, fainter growing,
Climbing higher, chiming on
Up the rounds of happy rhyming,
Slowly vanished in the dawn:
“Ring out the shame and sorrow,
And the misery and sin,
That the dawning of the morrow
May in peace be ushered in.”
To an utterance that flows
In syllables like dewdrops
From the red lips of a rose,
Till the anthem, fainter growing,
Climbing higher, chiming on
Up the rounds of happy rhyming,
Slowly vanished in the dawn:
“Ring out the shame and sorrow,
And the misery and sin,
That the dawning of the morrow
May in peace be ushered in.”
Then I raised my eyes to Heaven,
And with trembling lips I pled
For a blessing for the living
And a pardon for the dead;
And like a ghost of music
Slowly whispered—lowly sung—
Came the echo pure and holy
In the happy angel tongue:
“Ring out the shame and sorrow,
And the misery and sin,
And the dawn of every morrow
Will in peace be ushered in.”
And with trembling lips I pled
For a blessing for the living
And a pardon for the dead;
And like a ghost of music
Slowly whispered—lowly sung—
Came the echo pure and holy
In the happy angel tongue:
“Ring out the shame and sorrow,
And the misery and sin,
And the dawn of every morrow
Will in peace be ushered in.”
The Complete Works of James Whitcomb Riley | ||