{
 "id": "robert-w-service/new-years-eve",
 "title": "New Year’s Eve",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Robert W. Service",
 "poet_slug": "robert-w-service",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Songs of a Sourdough",
 "book_slug": "songs-of-a-sourdough",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 29,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1907,
  "venue": "Songs of a Sourdough (1907)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/songsofsourdoug00serv"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/robert-w-service_songs-of-a-sourdough",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25546",
   "https://archive.org/details/songsofsourdoug00serv"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 44,
  "n_stanzas": 11,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 87,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "It’s cruel cold on the waterfront, silent and dark and drear;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Only the black tide weltering, only the hissing snow;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And I, alone, like a storm-tossed wreck, on this night of the glad New Year,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shuffling along in the icy wind, ghastly and gaunt and slow.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "They’re playing a tune in McGuffy’s saloon, and it’s cheery and bright in there",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(God! but I’m weak⁠—since the bitter dawn, and never a bite of food);",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ll just go over and slip inside⁠—I mustn’t give way to despair⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Perhaps I can bum a little booze if the boys are feeling good.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "They’ll jeer at me, and they’ll sneer at me, and they’ll call me a whiskey soak;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(“Have a drink? Well, thankee kindly, sir, I don’t mind if I do.”)",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A drivelling, dirty gin-joint fiend, the butt of the barroom joke;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sunk and sodden and hopeless⁠—“Another? Well, here’s to you!”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "McGuffy is showing a bunch of the boys how Bob Fitzsimmons hit;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The barman is talking of Tammany Hall, and why the ward boss got fired;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ll just sneak into a corner, and they’ll let me alone a bit;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The room is reeling round and round⁠ ⁠… O God, but I’m tired, I’m tired.⁠ ⁠…",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Roses she wore on her breast that night. Oh, but their scent was sweet;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Alone we sat on the balcony, and the fan-palms arched above;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The witching strain of a waltz by Strauss came up to our cool retreat,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I prisoned her little hand in mine, and I whispered my plea of love.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then sudden the laughter died on her lips, and lowly she bent her head;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And oh, there came in the deep, dark eyes a look that was heaven to see",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the moments went, and I waited there, and never a word was said,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And she plucked from her bosom a rose of red, and shyly gave it to me.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then the music swelled to a crash of joy, and the lights blazed up like day;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I held her fast to my throbbing heart, and I kissed her bonny brow;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“She is mine, she is mine for evermore!” the violins seemed to say,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the bells were ringing the New Year in⁠—O God! I can hear them now.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Don’t you remember that long, last waltz, with its sobbing, sad refrain?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Don’t you remember that last goodbye, and the dear eyes dim with tears?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Don’t you remember that golden dream, with never a hint of pain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of lives that would blend like an angel-song in the bliss of the coming year?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Oh, what have I lost! What have I lost! Ethel, forgive, forgive!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The red, red rose is faded now, and it’s fifty years ago.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "’Twere better to die a thousand deaths than live each day as I live!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I have sinned, I have sunk to the lowest depths⁠—but oh, I have suffered so!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Hark! Oh hark! I can hear the bells!⁠ ⁠… Look! I can see her there,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fair as a dream⁠ ⁠… but it fades⁠ ⁠… And now⁠—I can hear the dreadful hum",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the crowded court⁠ ⁠… See! the Judge looks down⁠ ⁠… Not Guilty, my Lord, I swear⁠ ⁠…",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The bells, I can hear the bells again⁠ ⁠… Ethel, I come, I come!⁠ ⁠…",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Rouse up, old man, it’s twelve o’clock. You can’t sleep here, you know.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Say! ain’t you got no sentiment? Lift up your muddled head;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Have a drink to the glad New Year, a drop before you go⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You darned old dirty hobo⁠ ⁠… My God! Here, boys! He’s dead!”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}