Fear of the New Year!

Seasonal  sadness has been covered in a few articles; there is a post about depression at Christmas and one about depression at the Autumn Equinox for example.

Now it is time to say something about the malaise that comes upon some people at the time of the New Year. 

Ogden Nash's little poem about the New Year, Good Riddance, But Now What?, suggests that while it is good to see the back of the old year, what is coming may be even worse.

Another of his pessimistic New Year poems asserts that the night of December 31st is by far the worst night of the year.

Although Ogden Nash's poems make the impending New Year seem rather sinister, the humour takes the edge off his proposition that New Year's Eve is not a good time.

There is nothing remotely amusing about the following extract from Stella Gibbons's novel Starlight. It is Christmas Eve and someone isn't very happy:

“Peggy stood in silence, struggling with such a feeling of boredom and despair as seldom assailed even her. She could walk out of here to-morrow morning; nothing need stop her.

What was she doing in this hot room, with these fools, living their half-life?

Oh it was something to do – it passed the time – it made a break. The language of boredom and despair. “

Her employer's son notices her distress and asks her what's wrong:

“... just the feeling there’s another year nearly gone,’ she answered, paling.”

He replies:

“Here, here – you save that up for New Year’s Eve – that’s the time that really gets into its stride.”

People have such terrible feelings on New Year's Eve for many reasons. Some are afraid of what might happen; others are afraid that nothing will happen and the coming year will just be more of the – unsatisfactory – same. They may feel that time is running out.

I have learned recently that there is even a word for this fear of the New Year: neoannophobia! 

Starlight is not a good novel to read at this time of year:

More pessimistic New Year poetry from Ogden Nash

The American humourist and poet Ogden Nash had something to say about the New Year on more than one occasion, and none of it was very complimentary! 

His amusing little seasonal piece Good Riddance, But Now What? was featured in the New Year 2024 article. 

Good-bye, Old Year, You Oaf or Why Don’t They Pay The Bonus? is another pessimistic New Year poem.

Rather than quote it in full, I have selected some representative lines. This is how it starts:

“Many of the three hundred and sixty-five days of the year are followed by dreadful nights, but one night is far, oh yes, by far the worst,

And that, my friends, is the night of December the thirty-first.”

These are the final lines:

“Every new year is a direct descendant, isn’t it, of a long line of proven criminals?

And you can’t turn it into a philanthropist by welcoming it with cocktails and champagne any more successfully than with prayer books and hyminals.

Every new year is a country as barren as the old one, and it’s no use trying to forage it;

Every new year is incorrigible; then all I can say is for Heaven’s sakes, why go out of your way to incorrage it?”

Another edition of Ogden Nash's poems: 

A little New Year poem from Ogden Nash

 Alfred, Lord Tennyson's inspiring poem about the bells that ring in the New Year has been featured on here, as has Charles Lamb's sad poem The Old Familiar Faces.  

The American humourist Ogden Nash (1902 – 1971) wrote a little verse about the New Year in a rather different spirit:

Good Riddance, But Now What?

Come, children, gather round my knee;
Something is about to be.
Tonight’s December thirty-first,
Something is about to burst.
The clock is crouching, dark and small,
Like a time bomb in the hall.
Hark! It’s midnight, children dear.
Duck! Here comes another year. 

The poem's title is spot on. It expresses very well what some people feel at the end of yet another horrible year: they can't wait to see the back of it. Good riddance indeed! 

The title also suggests that the coming year might be even worse. We have no idea what is in store for us; we shall just have to wait and see what comes.

Charles Lamb's sad words about the New Year

There are two very promising titles among the works of the poet and essayist Charles Lamb: Satan in Search of a Wife and Witches, and Other Night-Fears. However, he is of interest here because of some topical quotations. 

Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote a poem about the bells that ring in the New Year.

Charles Lamb too had something to say about bells and the New Year:

“Of all sound of all bells… most solemn and touching is the peal which rings out the Old Year.“

This quotation comes from a rather depressing essay about the past and the future called New Year's Eve, which was published in the London Magazine on January 1st 1821. 

Charles Lamb also said that New Year's Day is every man's birthday and that -

“No one ever regarded the First of January with indifference.”

This is the time of year when we think about people who have gone for ever. This even more depressing quotation is from Charles Lamb's best-known poem The Old Familiar Faces:

“How some they have died, and some they have left me,

And some are taken from me; all are departed -
All, all are gone, the old familiar faces."

Ringing out the old year and ringing in the new

Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s very popular poem Ring Out, Wild Bells describes a ritual in which the bells in English parish churches are rung at midnight on New Year’s Eve to mark the departure of the old year and the arrival of the new one. 

It is a way of saying both ‘good riddance’ and ‘welcome’!

The words speak for themselves; I find them inspiring but also depressing: new beginnings seem possible, but the golden age he wished for is still not here after 170 years. 

Ring Out, Wild Bells was first published in 1850, the year Tennyson was appointed Poet Laureate. It forms part of his elegy In Memoriam.

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.

This poem is in the public domain and can be found online in many places, including Project Gutenberg.

The poetry and the poet:

Rudyard Kipling's New Year's Resolutions

Rudyard Kipling’s amusing little poem New Year Resolutions first appeared in an Indian newspaper on January 1st 1887. It was not published in a collected edition until 2013, thus general readers were unaware of its existence.

Kipling was working for local newspapers in India at the time. He lists his bad habits, typical Victorian vices such as gambling, smoking and dancing and flirting with young girls, and makes resolutions to give them up - with an exception for each one.

He knows that giving up a bad habit is much easier said than done, so he decides to implement the resolutions one yearly step at a time, starting with the decision to stop playing cards for money.

He describes a process that many of us go through when making our own resolutions: we will give up eating sweets – except for chocolate; we will start taking more exercise –  once we have got into the habit of eating much less sugar.

Such wisdom is unusual in young men; he was just a few days past his 21st birthday when this poem was published, 130 years ago:

    1.

I am resolved—throughout the year

      To lay my vices on the shelf;

A godly, sober course to steer

      And love my neighbours as myself—

Excepting always two or three

                    Whom I detest as they hate me.                         2.  

I am resolved—that whist is low—

      Especially with cards like mine—  

It guts a healthy Bank-book—so

      These earthly pleasures I resign, 

Except—and  here I see no sin— 

When asked by others to 'cut in'.

        3.  

I am resolved—no  more to dance 

      With ingenues—so help me Venus!

It gives the Chaperone her chance

      For hinting Heaven knows what between us.

The Ballroom and the Altar stand 

Too close in this suspicious land.

(N.B.)   But will I (here ten names) abandon?

                No, while I have a leg to stand on    

        4.  

I am resolved—to sell my horses.

      They cannot stay, they will not go; 

They lead me into evil courses

      Wherefore  I mean to part with—No!

Cut out that resolution—I'll

Try Jilt tomorrow on the mile.

         5.  

I am resolved—to flirt no more,

      It leads to strife and tribulation ; 

Not that I used to flirt before,

      But as a bar against temptation. 

     Here I except (cut out the names) 

x perfectly Platonic flames.

         6.  

I am resolved—to drop my smokes,

      The Trichi has an evil taste.

I cannot buy the brands of Oakes; 

      But, lest I take a step in haste,

And—so upset my health, I choose a

'More perfect way' in pipes and Poosa. 

           7.  

I am resolved—that vows like these, 

      Though lightly made, are hard to keep;

Wherefore I'll take them by degrees,

      Lest my backslidings make me weep. 

One vow a year will see me through; 

And I'll begin with Number Two.

From 100 Poems: Old and New by Rudyard Kipling

https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poem/poems_resolutions.htm

I found an image of an old sea-mail envelope on which Kipling has typed the first two and the final verses of his poem. It is full of typing errors. As an example, he has put 'Expecting' instead of 'Excepting' in the first verse! 

Kipling visited Japan in 1889 and 1892, so presumably was still working on implementing his resolutions year by year.