{
 "id": "george-macdonald/the-death-of-the-old-year",
 "title": "The Death of the Old Year",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "George MacDonald",
 "poet_slug": "george-macdonald",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "A Hidden Life and Other Poems",
 "book_slug": "a-hidden-life-and-other-poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 6,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1864,
  "venue": "A Hidden Life and Other Poems (1864)",
  "note": "Taken from the 1864 volume A Hidden Life and Other Poems, which is the printing this text derives from rather than the poem's first appearance: the same poems stand at the same page numbers in MacDonald's Poems (London, 1857), so an earlier printing is known and 1864 is not it. Whether the 1857 volume or a periodical printed the poem first has not been established here.",
  "uncertain": true,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_N7tfAAAAMAAJ",
   "https://archive.org/details/hiddenlifeandoth00macduoft",
   "https://archive.org/metadata/hiddenlifeandoth00macduoft"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/george-macdonald_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1953",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8949",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9543",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9984",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10578",
   "https://archive.org/details/bookofstrifeinfo00macd",
   "https://archive.org/details/discipleandothe02macdgoog",
   "https://archive.org/details/hiddenlifeandoth00macduoft",
   "https://archive.org/details/discipleandothe02macdgoog",
   "https://archive.org/details/rampolli00macd",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/102955776",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011821572"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 184,
  "n_stanzas": 12,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 57,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "The weary Old Year is dead at last;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His corpse ’mid the ruins of Time is cast,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where the mouldering wrecks of lost Thought lie,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the rich-hued blossoms of Passion die",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To a withering grass that droops o’er his grave,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The shadowy Titan’s refuge cave.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Strange lights from pale moony Memory lie",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On the weedy columns beneath its eye;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And strange is the sound of the ghostlike breeze,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the lingering leaves on the skeleton trees;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And strange is the sound of the falling shower,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When the clouds of dead pain o’er the spirit lower;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unheard in the home he inhabiteth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The land where all lost things are gathered by Death.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Alone I reclined in the closing year;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Voice, nor breathing, nor step was near;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I said in the weariness of my breast:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Weary Old Year, thou art going to rest;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O weary Old Year, I would I might be",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "One hour alone in thy dying with thee!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Would thou wert a spirit, whose low lament",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Might mix with the sighs from my spirit sent;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For I am weary of man and life;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Weary of restless unchanging strife;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Weary of change that is ever changing;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Weary of thought that is ever ranging,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ever falling in efforts vain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fluttering, upspringing from earth again,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Struggling once more through the darkness to wing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That hangs o’er the birthplace of everything,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And choked yet again in the vapour’s breast,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sinking once more to a helpless rest.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I am weary of tears that scarce are dry,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ere their founts are filled as the cloud goes by;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Weary of feelings where each in the throng",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mocks at the rest as they crowd along;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where Pride over all, like a god on high,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sits enshrined in his self-complacency;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where Selfishness crawls, the snake-demon of ill,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The least suspected where busiest still;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where all things evil and painful entwine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all in their hate and their sorrow are mine:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O weary Old Year, I would I might be",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "One hour by thy dying, to weep with thee!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Peace, the soul’s slumber, was round me shed;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The sleep where thought lives, but its pain is dead;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And my musings led me, a spirit-band,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through the wide realms of their native land;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till I stood by the couch of the mighty dying,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A lonely shore in the midnight lying.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He lay as if he had laid him to sleep,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the stars above him their watch did keep;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the mournful wind with the dreamy sigh,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The homeless wanderer of the sky,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was the only attendant whose gentle breath",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Soothed him yet on the couch of death;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the dying waves of the heedless sea",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fell at his feet most listlessly.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But he lay in peace, with his solemn eye",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Looking far through the mists of futurity.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A smile gleamed over the death-dew that lay",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On his withered cheek as life ebbed away.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A darkness lay on his forehead vast;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But the light of expectancy o’er it was cast⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A light that shone from the coming day,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Travelling unseen to the East away.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In his cloudy robes that lay shadowing wide,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I stretched myself motionless by his side;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And his eyes with their calm, unimpassioned power,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Soothing my heart like an evening shower,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Led in a spectral, far-billowing train,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The hours of the Past through my spirit again.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "There were fears of evil whose stony eyes",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Froze joy in its gushing melodies.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Some floated afar on thy tranquil wave,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the heart looked up from its search for a grave;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While others as guests to the bosom came,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And left its wild children more sorrow, less shame;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For the death-look parts from their chilling brow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And they bless the heads that before them bow;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And floating away in the far-off gloom.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thankfulness follows them to their tomb.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There were Hopes that found not a place to rest",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their foot ’mid the rush of all-ocean’s breast;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And home to the sickening heart flew back,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But changed into sorrows upon their track;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And through the moan of the darkening sea",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bearing no leaf from the olive-tree.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There were joys that looked forth with their maiden eyes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And smiled, and were gone, with a sad surprise;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the Love of the Earthly, whose beauteous form",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beckoned me on through sunshine and storm;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But when the bounding heart sprang high,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Meeting her smile with a speechless sigh,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The arms sunk home with a painful start,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Clasping a vacancy to the heart.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And the voice of the dying I seem to hear",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But whether his breathing is in mine ear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or the sounds of the breaking billows roll",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The lingering accents upon my soul,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I know not; but thus they seem to bear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Reproof to my soul for its faint despair:⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Blame not life, it is scarce begun;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Blame not mankind, thyself art one.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And change is holy, oh! blame it never;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy soul shall live by its changing ever;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not the bubbling change of a stagnant pool,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But the change of a river, flowing and full;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where all that is noble and good will grow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mightier still as the full tides flow;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till it joins the hidden, the boundless sea,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rolling through depths of Eternity.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Blame not thy thought that it cannot reach",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That which the Infinite must teach;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bless thy God that the Word came nigh",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To guide thee home to thy native sky,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where all things are homely and glorious too,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the children are wondering, and glad, and true.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And he pointed away to an Eastern star,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That gleamed through his robes o’er the ocean afar;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I knew that a star had looked o’er the rim",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of my world that lay all dreary and dim;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And was slowly dissolving the darkness deep",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which, like evil nurse, had soothed me to sleep;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And rising higher, and shining clearer,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Would draw the day-spring ever nearer,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till the sunshine of God burst full on the morn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And every hill and valley would start",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With the joy of light and new gratitude born",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To Him who had led me home to His heart;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all things that lived in my world within",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With the gladness of tears to His feet come in;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the false Self be banished with fiends to dwell",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the gloomiest haunts of his native hell;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Pride, that ruled like a god above,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Be trod ’neath the feet of triumphant Love.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And again he pointed across the sea,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And another vision arose in me:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I knew I walked an ocean of fear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet of safety too, for the Master was near;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And every wave of sorrow or dread,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O’er which strong faith should upraise my head,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Would show from the height of its troubled crest",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Still nearer and nearer the Land of Rest.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And when the storm-spray on the wind should arise,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And with tears unbidden should blind mine eyes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And hide from my vision the Home of Love,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I knew I must look to the star above,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the mists of Passion would quickly flee,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the storm would faint to serenity.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And again it seemed as if words found scope,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The sorrowing words of a farewell Hope:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“I will meet thee again in that deathless land,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whenever thy foot shall imprint the strand;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the loveliest things that have here been mine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall there in eternal beauty shine;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For there I shall live and never die,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Part of a glorious Eternity;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For the death of Time is To be forgot,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I go where oblivion entereth not.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He was dead. He had gone to the rest of his race,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With a sad smile frozen upon his face.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Deadness clouded his eyes. And his death-bell rung,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And my sorrowing thoughts his low requiem sung;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And with trembling steps his worn body cast",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the wide charnel-house of the dreary Past.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thus met the noble Old Year his end:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rest him in peace, for he was my friend.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "As my thoughts returned from their wandering,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A voice in my spirit was lingering;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And its sounds were like Spring’s first breeze’s hum,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When the oak-leaves fall, and the young leaves come:",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Time dieth ever, is ever born:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "On the footsteps of night so treadeth the morn;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shadow and brightness, death and birth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Chasing each other o’er the round earth.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But the spirit of Time from his tomb is springing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The dust of decay from his pinions flinging;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ever renewing his glorious youth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Scattering around him the dew of Truth.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Oh, let it raise in the desert heart",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fountains and flowers that shall never depart!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This spirit will fill us with thought sublime;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For the End of God is the spirit of Time.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}