A New Year’s Greeting.
Long years have passed since we last met,
Long years of mingled joy and pain,
And years may come and vanish yet
Ere we two meet again.
The path I’ve trod since then, dear friend,
Has proven rough unto my feet;
I’ve learned that Life holds in the end
More bitterness than sweet.
And now on this glad New Year’s day,
When all the land is bright with cheer,
I pause beside the mile-stone gray
That marks another year.
Here Friendship comes with outstretched hand
Her chosen, favored ones to meet.
Unnoticed and alone I stand—
I have no friend to greet.
In bitterness I turn away
And sigh: “Is there not one that’s true,
Whose friendship can outlast a day?”
And then I think of you.
O truest heart! O noblest friend
God ever sent to comfort me,
Here at the Old Year’s fruitless end
My soul cries out to thee.
