Page:A New Zealand verse (1906).pdf/42

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6
The Old Year and the New.
When the love of home was round us,  By the blazing Christmas fires;And the love of country bound us  To the hearthstones of our sires.
But our sons will see the glory  Of the young and springing year;Where the green earth tells the story  Of a younger hemisphere.
And the eve will lose its sadness  In the hopefulness of day,———In a birth so full of gladness,———  In a death without decay.
But for us the morning’s garland  Glistens still with evening’s dew;———We—the children of a far land,  And the fathers of a new.
For we still, through old affection,  Hear the old year’s dying sigh,Through the sad sweet recollection  Of the years that are gone by.
While, through all the future gleaming,  A bright golden promise runs,And its happy light is streaming  Of the greatness of our sons.
Pray we, then, whate’er betide them———  Howsoever great they’re grown———That the past of England guide them,  While the present is their own!

Charles C. Bowen.

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