Happy New Year 2024
Expect the Unexpected
I wish you and your families the very best for a very happy, healthy and prosperous year in 2024.
The Passing of the Year
1874 –1958
My glass is filled, my pipe is lit,
My den is all a cosy glow;
And snug before the fire I sit,
And wait to feel the old year go.
I dedicate to solemn thought
Amid my too-unthinking days,
This sober moment, sadly fraught
With much of blame, with little praise.
Old Year! upon the Stage of Time
You stand to bow your last adieu;
A moment, and the prompter’s chime
Will ring the curtain down on you.
Your mien is sad, your step is slow;
You falter as a Sage in pain;
Yet turn, Old Year, before you go,
And face your audience again.
That sphinx-like face, remote, austere,
Let us all read, whate’er the cost:
O Maiden! why that bitter tear?
Is it for dear one you have lost?
Is it for fond illusion gone?
For trusted lover proved untrue?
O sweet girl-face, so sad, so wan
What hath the Old Year meant to you?
And you, O neighbour on my right
So sleek, so prosperously clad!
What see you in that aged wight
That makes your smile so gay and glad?
What opportunity unmissed?
What golden gain, what pride of place?
What splendid hope? O Optimist!
What read you in that withered face?
And You, deep shrinking in the gloom,
What find you in that filmy gaze?
What menace of a tragic doom?
What dark, condemning yesterdays?
What urge to crime, what evil done?
What cold, confronting shape of fear?
O haggard, haunted, hidden One
What see you in the dying year?
And so from face to face I flit,
The countless eyes that stare and stare;
Some are with approbation lit,
And some are shadowed with despair.
Some show a smile and some a frown;
Some joy and hope, some pain and woe:
Enough! Oh, ring the curtain down!
Old weary year! it's time to go.
My pipe is out, my glass is dry;
My fire is almost ashes too;
But once again, before you go,
And I prepare to meet the New:
Old Year! a parting word that’s true,
For we’ve been comrades, you and I—
I thank God for each day of you;
There! bless you now! Old Year, good-bye!
Aside from being my favorite poet, Robert Service is famous in Western and Northern Canada for writing “The Cremation of Sam McGee” and “The Shooting of Dan McGrew.” Born in Lancashire England in 1874, Service moved to Dawson City, Yukon where he lived in a small log cabin and wrote many of his Northern works from 1909 - 1912.
Service is known both as the “Canadian Kipling” and the “Poet of the Yukon.”
One of my favorite books is “The Complete Works of Robert Service.” My parents gave me my own copy one year for Christmas because when I was growing up I spent hours reading their copy. My dad took a photo of Robert Service’s Cabin when he went to Dawson City, Yukon in 1965. He kept the photo in his office.
I hope you enjoy this New Year Poem. And if you get a chance, look up “The Cremation of Sam McGee” and “The Shooting of Dan McGrew.”
Happy New Year to All!