As the Old Year Sinks Down in Time’s
Ocean, Stand Ready to Launch with the New
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
New Year Celebrations in Moscow
As the old year sinks down in Time’s ocean,
Stand ready to launch with the new,
And waste no regrets, no emotion,
As the masts and the spars pass from view.
Weep not if some treasures go under,
And sink in the rotten ship’s hold,
That blithe bonny barque sailing yonder
May bring you more wealth than the old.
For the world is for ever improving,
All the past is not worth one to-day,
And whatever deserves our true loving,
Is stronger than death or decay.
Old love, was it wasted devotion?
Old friends, were they weak or untrue?
Well, let them sink there in mid-ocean,
And gaily sail on to the new.
Throw overboard toil misdirected,
Throw overboard ill-advised hope,
With aims which, your soul has detected,
Have self as their centre and scope.
Throw overboard useless regretting
For deeds which you cannot undo,
And learn the great art of forgetting
Old things which embitter the new.
Sing who will of dead years departed,
I shroud them and bid them adieu,
And the song that I sing, happy-hearted,
Is a song of the glorious new.
(Ella Wheeler Wilcox)
000
The above poem was published in the associated websites on 31 December 2019.
It was reproduced from the volume “Poetical Works of Ella Wheeler Wilcox”, by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Edinburgh: W. P. Nimmo, Hay, & Mitchell, (probably 1917), 527 pp., see pp. 108-109. Original title: “New Year”.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1851-1919) wrote several poems on the subject of New Year. Click to see other writings by her.
000