“A Song for New Year’s Eve” by William Cullen Bryant

It’s the end of the year; what a fitting time for a blog about, well, “the end.” And just as fittingly, this week’s selection is “A Song for New Year’s Eve,” by William Cullen Bryant. The piece is about how the year may be going, but that doesn’t mean that everyone can’t enjoy it while it’s still here. There is a direct reference to death, but the poem itself can be taken as a metaphor for enjoying the last of life, and looking forward to what comes next, rather than dreading it.

Bryant begins by comparing the year to a friend who is leaving:

Stay yet, my friends, a moment stay—

Stay till the good old year

So long companion of our way,

Shakes hands, and leaves us here. (1-4).

Like the passing year, we enjoy the company of our loved ones, and find it difficult to see them go. But it’s far better to cherish the time we have left with them than to spend that time grieving. As Bryant puts it, “Oh stay, oh stay,/One little hour, and then away” (5-6). Eventually all of us must go, but we should appreciate every minute we have. The poet believes that everyone’s final hour should be full of “jest and song” (9), not sadness, and that we should do so for each individual’s “familiar sake” (10).

In the next stanza, Bryant talks of how the “kindly year” (13) has “lavished all his store” (14), but he inquires, “…shall we turn from where he stands,/Because he gives no more?” (15-16). Just because the end is near doesn’t meant that it is actually upon us. We must not abandon those in their final hour, when they need us most. Instead, we should both live in the present moment, and recall the past. Bryant writes:

Days brightly came and calmly went,

While yet he was our guest;

How cheerfully the week was spent!

How sweet the seventh day’s rest! (19-22)

William Cullen Bryant

Just as the days of the year have come and gone, so have the moments that have been spent with the people we love. But the fact that that time must end does not diminish the memories we have with them. Looking back makes us remember all the “sweet” and “cheerful[]” days. Bryant mentions those that have already left us in the next verse: “Dear friends were with us, some who sleep/Beneath the coffin-lid…” (25-26). Even after our loved ones are gone, they are still a part of our lives. And we will always retain “pleasant memories” (27) of “all they said and did” (28).

The poem’s final stanza completes the metaphor of the year as a friend who has reached the end of his life: “Even while we sing, he smiles his last,/And leaves our sphere behind” (31-32). Just as those that pass away leave this “sphere,” midnight on New Year’s Eve brings the year’s “death.” The important thing is that we are not mourning before the time has even come, but that we are all smiling and singing, up to that last hour.

*Top photo credit: onesothebysrealty.com

Related Reading:

• Find out more about William Cullen Bryant
• Learn more about the history of New Year’s