New Year’s Eve by Thomas Hardy
Today’s selection was easy, given that this was already in my file (courtesy of the Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry of course).
New Year’s Eve
By Thomas Hardy
‘I have finished another year,’ said God,
’In grey, green, white, and brown;
I have strewn the leaf upon the sod,
Sealed up the worm within the clod,
And let the last sun down.’
’And what’s the good of it?’ I said.
‘What reasons made you call
From formless void this earth we tread,
When nine-and-ninety can be read
Why nought should be at all?
‘Yea, Sire; why shaped you us, “who in
This tabernacle groan”—
If ever a joy be found herein,
Such joy no man had wished to win
If he had never known!’
Then he: ‘My labours—logicless—
You may explain; not I:
Sense-sealed I have wrought, without a guess
That I evolved a Consciousness
To ask for reasons why.
‘Strange that ephemeral creatures who
By my own ordering are,
Should see the shortness of my view,
Use ethic tests I never knew,
Or made provision for!’
He sank to raptness as of yore,
And opening New Year’s Day
Wove it by rote as theretofore,
And went on working evermore
In his unweeting way.
Current Tea: lemon chiffon rooibos (rooibos, a South African herbal tisane, with lemongrass, marigold flowers, and creamy lemon flavor)
I just wrote a 4 page analysis of this poem… I absolutely love it and it’s a really unique vision of God compared to Hardy’s other poems. Two thumbs up!!