A POEM FOR THE NEW YEAR

THE YEAR by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

-----------ooOoo-----------

About the poet:

Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850 – 1919) was an American author and poet. Her works include the collection Poems of Passion and the poem "Solitude", which contains the lines "Laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep, and you weep alone."

About those lines:

Her poem "The Way of the World" was first published in 1883. The inspiration for the poem came as she was travelling to attend the Governor's inaugural ball in Madison, Wisconsin. On her way to the celebration, there was a young woman dressed in black sitting across the aisle from her. The woman was crying. Ella Wheeler sat next to her and sought to comfort her for the rest of the journey. When they arrived, the poet was so depressed that she could barely attend the scheduled festivities. As she looked at her own radiant face in the mirror, she suddenly recalled the sorrowful widow. It was at that moment that she wrote the opening lines:

Laugh, and the world laughs with you;

Weep, and you weep alone.

For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth

But has trouble enough of its own

She sent the poem to the Sun nespaper and received $5 for her effort.

Her autobiography, The Worlds and I, was published in 1918, a year before her death.

-----------ooOoo-----------

About the poem:

“Throughout the poem, she places opposing elements of life together, such as laughing and weeping and hoping and dying. It is with these good and bad parts of life in mind that she presents a fuller, more realistic picture of the “new year.”

https://poemanalysis.com/ella-wheeler-wilcox/the-year/

“…she shares the reality of each new year. Time continues to move forward—years come and they go. Every new year is marked by great expectations, but the reality is that each year is filled with both joyous and sorrowful moments.”

https://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/the-year-by-ella-wheeler-wilcox

-----------ooOoo-----------

The poem:

The Year

- Ella Wheeler Wilcox

What can be said in New Year rhymes,

That’s not been said a thousand times?

The new years come, the old years go,

We know we dream, we dream we know.

We rise up laughing with the light,

We lie down weeping with the night.

We hug the world until it stings,

We curse it then and sigh for wings.

We live, we love, we woo, we wed,

We wreathe our prides, we sheet our dead.

We laugh, we weep, we hope, we fear,

And that’s the burden of a year.