Poems (Jordan)/Another Year

by Rebecca Queen Jordan

ANOTHER YEAR

The clock ticks on, yet realize we not
 The meaning of its sound monotonous;
We rise; we eat; we toil; we rest;—our lot
 Unchanged from day to day. 'Twas ever thus,
And thus, think we, 'twill ever be, when—lo!
 We catch a look upon this face of Time
Which chills our hearts! and, after that we know
 That 'tis our life-drops, with a mystic chime,
Falling into silence; and trembling hands
 Upreach to stanch the flow, but all in vain!
Life steadily doth loose the Time-wrought bands,
 'Till someone says, "The clock has stopped again!"

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A bright New Year! unpeopled of event
 As yet, but to its sunlit shores shall come
Life-laden barques, and voyaging here shall home
 Gigantic deeds; and paths 'till now unbent
By human tread, shall live Experience
 Walk up and down, and future sight shall trace
Its footprints all, besigned in influence,—
 As fern leaves caught of pliant soil envase
Their beingness in rocks! Time's heavy hand
 Which else destroys, doth this perpetuate.
O, isle of Opportunity! we stand
 With hopeful hearts at thy Chance-op'ning gate!