Poems (Jordan)/Another Year
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 TimeWhich 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 comeLife-laden barques, and voyaging here shall home Gigantic deeds; and paths 'till now unbentBy human tread, shall live Experience Walk up and down, and future sight shall traceIts footprints all, besigned in influence,— As fern leaves caught of pliant soil envaseTheir 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!