The New Penelope and Other Stories and Poems Part 44

"Even so."

The revelers said: "We'll have naught of woe.

Why should we mourn, who have our fill?

Enough that the hungry wretches cry: We from our plenty cast at will Some crumbs to make their wet eyelids dry; But to the rich the world is fair-- Why should we grovel in tears and prayer?"

In her innocent bliss, A fair bride said with sweet earnestness, "For the dead Year am I truly sad; Since in its happy and hopeful days, Every brief hour my heart was glad, And blessings were strewn in all my ways: Will it be so forevermore?

Will the New Years bring of love new store?"

Youth and maid.

Of their conscious blushes half afraid, Shunning each other's tell-tale eyes, Yet cherishing hopes too fond to own; Speed the Old Year with secret sighs; And smile that his time is overflown; Shall they not hear each other say "Dear Love!" ere the New Year's pa.s.sed away?

"O, haste on!

The year or the pleasure is dead that is gone!"

Boasted the man of pomp and power; "That which we hold is alone the good; Give me new pleasures for every hour, And grieve over past joys ye who would-- Joys that are fled are poor, I wis-- Give me forever the newest bliss!"

"Wish me joy,"

Girl-Beauty cried, with glances coy: "In the New Year a woman I; I'll then have jewels in my hair, And such rare webs as Princes buy Be none too choice for me to wear: I'll queen it as a beauty should, And not be won before I'm wooed!"

"Poor and proud--poor and proud!"

Sighed a student in the motley crowd-- "I heard her whisper that aside: O fatal fairness, aping heaven When earthly most!--I'll not deride-- G.o.d knows that were all good gifts given To me as lavishly as rain, I'd bring them to her feet again."

"Here are the fools we use for tools; Bending their pa.s.sion, ere it cools, To any need," the cynic said: "Lo, I will give him gold, and he Shall sell me brain as it were bread!

His very soul I'll hold in fee For baubles that shall buy the hand Of the coldest woman in the land!"

Spirit sore, The Old Year cared to see no more; While, as he turned, he heard a moan-- Frosty and keen was the wintry night-- p.r.o.ne on the marble paving-stone, Unwatched, unwept, a piteous sight, Starved and dying a poor wretch lay; Through the blast he heard him gasping say:

"O, Old Year!

From sightless eyes you force this tear; Sorrows you've heaped upon my head, Losses you've gathered to drive me wild, All that I lived for, loved, are dead,-- Brother and sister, wife and child, I, too, am perishing as well; I shall share the toll of your pa.s.sing bell!"

Grieved, and sad, For the sins and woes the Human had, The Old Year strove to avert his eyes; But fly or turn wherever he would, On his vexed ear smote the mingled cries Of revel and new-made widowhood-- Of grief that would not be comforted With the loved and beautiful lying dead.

Evermore, every hour, Rising from hovel, hall and tower, Swelling the strain of discontent; Gurgled the hopeless prayer for alms, Rung out the wild oath impotent; Echoed by some brief walls of calms, Straining the listener's shrinking ears, Like silence when thunderbolts are near.

Across that calm, like gales of balm, Some low, sweet household voices came; Thrilling, like flute-notes straying out From land to sea, some stormy night, The ear that listens for the shout Of drowning boatmen lost to sight-- And died away, again so soon The pulseless air seemed fallen in a swoon.

Once pure and clear, Clarion strains fell on his ear: The preacher shook the soulless creeds, And pierced men's hearts with arrowy words, Yet failed to stir them to good deeds: Their new-fledged thoughts, like July birds, Soared on the air and glanced away, Before the eloquent voice could stay.

"'Tis very sad the man is mad,"

The men and women gaily said; As they, laughing, thread their homeward road, Talking of other holidays; Of last year, how it rained or snowed; Who went abroad, who wed a blaze Of diamonds with his shoddy bride, On certain days--and who had died.

"Would I were dead, And vexed no more," the Old Year said: "In vain may the preacher pray and warn; The tinkling cymbals in your ears Turn every gracious word to scorn; Ye care not for the orphan's tears; Your sides are fed, and your bodies clad Is there anything heaven itself could add?"

And then he sighed, as one who died, With a great wish unsatisfied; Around him like a wintry sea, Whose waves were nations, surged the world, Stormy, unstable, constantly Upheaved to be again down-hurled; Here struggled some for freedom; here Oppression rode in the high career.

In hot debate Men struggled, while the hours waxed late; Contending with the watchful zeal Of gladiators, trained to die; Yet not for life, nor country's weal, But that their names might hang on high As men who loved themselves, indeed, And robbed the State to satisfy their need!

Heads of snow, and eyes aglow With fires that youth might blush to know; And brows whose youthful fairness shamed The desperate thoughts that strove within; While each his cause exulting named As purest that the world had seen: All names they had to tickle honest ears, Reform, and Rights, and sweet Philanthropy's cares.

"Well-a-day! Well-a-day!"

The Old Year strove to put away Sight and sound of the reckless earth; But soft! from out a cottage door, Sweet strains of neither grief nor mirth, Upon his dying ear did pour; "Give us, O G.o.d," the singers said, "As good a year as this one dead!"

Pealing loud from sod to cloud, Earth's bell's rang out in a chorus proud; Great waves of music shook the air From organs pulsing with the sound; Hushed was the voice of sob and prayer, As time touched the eternal bound: To the dead monarch earth was dimmed, But the golden portals brighter beamed.

Sad no more, The Old Year reached the golden door, Just as the hours with crystal clang Aside the shining portals bent And murmuring 'mong the spheres there rang The chorus of earth's acknowledgment: One had pa.s.sed out at the golden door, And one had gone in forevermore!

THE END.