Page:Poems, Volume 2, Coates, 1916.djvu/157



HESE sounds sonorous rolling!

These vibrant tones and clear!

Listen! The bells are tolling

The requiem of the year:

The year that dies, as mute it lies

Mid fallen leaves and sere!

Now by the fading embers

That on the hearthstone glow,

How sadly one remembers

The things of long ago:

The wistful things, with flame-bright wings,

That vanished long ago!

The self-effacing sorrow,

The generous desire,

The pledges for the morrow,

Enkindled at this fire!—

Enkindled here, O dying year!

Where smoulders low thy pyre.