‘The Year,’ a poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

This poem, entitled The Year, was written by Ella Wheeler Wilcox In it, she shares the reality of each new year. She uses the poem to explain how time continues to move forward and each coming year is filled with good and bad moments. It is a beautiful poem, even though it is sad, it reminds people that life is not all sunshine and daisies – there are bad times, that is just a part of life. The poem also reminds us that with the bad, there is also good.

What can be said in New Year rhymes,

That’s not been said a thousand times?

The new years come, the old years go,

We know we dream, we dream we know.

We rise up laughing with the light,

We lie down weeping with the night.

We hug the world until it stings,

We curse it then and sigh for wings.

We live, we love, we woo, we wed,

We wreathe our brides, we sheet our dead.

We laugh, we weep, we hope, we fear,

And that’s the burden of the year.