A New Year's Gift / William Strode

A New Year's Gift

We are prevented; you whose Presence is
A Public New-year's gift, a Common bliss
To all that Love or Fear, give no man leave
To vie a Gift but first he shall receive;
Like as the Persian Sun with golden Eyes
First shines upon the Priest and Sacrifice.

I'll on howe'er: May this year happier prove
Than all the Golden Age when Virtue strove
With nothing but with Virtue; may it be
Such as the Dayes of Saturn's Infancy.
May every Tide and Season jointly fit
All your Intents and your Occasions hit:
May every Grain of Sand within your Glass
Number a fresh content before it pass.
And when success comes on, stand then each hour
Like Joshua's Day, & grow to three or four:
At last when this year rounds and wheels away,
Be still the next year like the old year's Day.

~~
William Strode
from The Poetical Works of William Strode, 1907

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

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