Page:Negro poets and their poems (IA negropoetstheirp00kerl).pdf/278

256 the following poem, Tennyson’s famous stanzas on the same theme. It is in the effective manner of the poems already given from its author:

Goodbye, Old Year. Here comes New. You’ve done wonders; now you’re through; Adding wisdom to the ages, Making history’s best pages; Rest and slumber with the sages. Good-bye, Old Year. Welcome, New. Goodbye, Old Year. Welcome, New. Off with false hopes; on with true. Nations raise a mighty chorus, Rich intoning, grand, sonorous, Blithe and gladsome, sad, dolorous; Goodbye, Old Year. Welcome, New. Off with false hopes. On with true. Goodbye, Old Year. Hail the New. Goodbye, hatreds. Wrongs, adieu. Down Life’s lane, with high or lowly, Weak, or strong, sin-cursed, or holy, Time is reaping—trudging slowly. Goodbye, Old Year. Hail the New. Goodbye, hatreds. Wrongs, adieu. Goodbye, Old Year. Come in, New. Stout hearts look for light to you. Rising hopes new scenes are staging;