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Poetry Sunday: December by Edwin Arnold

Our "whirl around the sun" for this year is almost done. Sad or glad, we'll soon let the "Old Year" go as we look forward to the blank slate of 2023. What will it bring? What will our thoughts be one year from now as we look back? 

December

by Edwin Arnold

In spangle of frost, and stars of snow,
Unto his end the Year doth wend;
And sad for some the days did go,
And glad for some were beginning and end;
But sad or glad, grieve not for his death,
Mournfully counting your measures of breath;
You that, before the worlds began,
Were seed of woman and surety of man;
You that are older than Aldebaran!
It was but a whirl round about the sun,
A silver dance of the planets done,
A step in the Infinite Minuet
Which the great stars pace to a music set
By Life Immortal and Love Divine
Which sounds, in your span of threescore and ten,
One chord of the Harmony, fair and fine,
Of What did make you women and men.
In spangle of frost, and stars of snow
Sad or glad—let the Old Year go!
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Comments

  1. David M. Gascoigne,December 18, 2022 at 5:37 AM

    "Sad or glad - let the Old Year go" - we have little choice in the matter! Let's all try to enjoy the years that remain in ever decreasing number and try to make a difference.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AlanaDecember 18, 2022 at 2:45 PM

    Our days are all numbered, each of ours. Let's enjoy each year while we can. Let go of the old, ring in with the new.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lark December 18, 2022 at 3:49 PM

    Let the old year go! Resounding words in a lovely poem. How do you ever find such perfect poems each month?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Deb Nance at ReaderbuzzDecember 20, 2022 at 3:18 PM

    I was so happy to let go of 2020, but I didn't realize that it wasn't so easy to release it. Still 2020 lingers now and then here. So if I could simply let go of the aspects of 2020 that were so traumatic and which persist into 2022...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dorothy BordersDecember 20, 2022 at 5:15 PM

      And that is the hard part. Yes, the year ends but it is still a part of our experience and we can't so easily dismiss it.

      Delete
  5. Rajani RehanaDecember 21, 2022 at 3:48 AM

    Super blog

    ReplyDelete

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