{
 "id": "james-weldon-johnson/ghosts-of-the-old-year",
 "title": "Ghosts of the Old Year",
 "poet": "James Weldon Johnson",
 "poet_slug": "james-weldon-johnson",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Fifty Years & Other Poems",
 "book_slug": "fifty-years-and-other-poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 23,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1917,
  "venue": "Fifty Years & Other Poems (1917)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/fiftyyearsother00johnrich",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17884"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/james-weldon-johnson_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.google.com/books/edition/How_the_National_Association_for_the_Adv/AAs-AQAAMAAJ",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17884",
   "https://archive.org/details/fiftyyearsother00johnrich",
   "https://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/johnson/johnson.html",
   "https://archive.org/details/godstrombonessev00johnso"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-12"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 32,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 45,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "The snow has ceased its fluttering flight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The wind sunk to a whisper light,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An ominous stillness fills the night,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A pause⁠—a hush.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "At last, a sound that breaks the spell,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Loud, clanging mouthings of a bell,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That through the silence peal and swell,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And roll, and rush.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "What does this brazen tongue declare,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That falling on the midnight air",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Brings to my heart a sense of care",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Akin to fright?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "’Tis telling that the year is dead,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The New Year come, the Old Year fled,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Another leaf before me spread",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On which to write.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "It tells the deeds that were not done,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It tells of races never run,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of victories that were not won,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Barriers unleaped.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "It tells of many a squandered day,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of slighted gems and treasured clay,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of precious stores not laid away,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of fields unreaped.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And so the years go swiftly by,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Each, coming, brings ambitions high,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And each, departing, leaves a sigh",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Linked to the past.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Large resolutions, little deeds;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thus, filled with aims unreached, life speeds",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Until the blotted record reads,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Failure!” at last.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}