A FRIEND stands at the door; <br />In either tight-closed hand <br />Hiding rich gifts, three hundred and three score: <br />Waiting to strew them daily o'er the land <br />Even as seed the sower. <br />Each drops he, treads it in and passes by: <br />It cannot be made fruitful till it die. <br /> <br />O good New Year, we clasp <br />This warm shut hand of thine, <br />Loosing forever, with half sigh, half gasp, <br />That which from ours falls like dead fingers' twine: <br />Ay, whether fierce its grasp <br />Has been, or gentle, having been, we know <br />That it was blessed: let the Old Year go. <br /> <br />O New Year, teach us faith! <br />The road of life is hard: <br />When our feet bleed and scourging winds us scathe, <br />Point thou to Him whose visage was more marred <br />Than any man's: who saith <br />'Make straight paths for your feet'--and to the opprest-- <br />'Come ye to Me, and I will give you rest.' <br /> <br />Yet hang some lamp-like hope <br />Above this unknown way, <br />Kind year, to give our spirits freer scope <br />And our hands strength to work while it is day. <br />But if that way must slope <br />Tombward, O bring before our fading eyes <br />The lamp of life, the Hope that never dies. <br /> <br />Comfort our souls with love,-- <br />Love of all human kind; <br />Love special, close--in which like sheltered dove <br />Each weary heart its own safe nest may find; <br />And love that turns above <br />Adoringly; contented to resign <br />All loves, if need be, for the Love Divine. <br /> <br />Friend, come thou like a friend, <br />And whether bright thy face, <br />Or dim with clouds we cannot comprehend,-- <br />We'll hold out patient hands, each in his place, <br />And trust thee to the end. <br />Knowing thou leadest onwards to those spheres <br />Where there are neither days nor months nor years.<br /><br />Dinah Maria Mulock Craik<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-psalm-for-new-year-s-eve/
