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:

Unseen Influences at Christmas

I don’t enjoy this time of year very much. Seasonal depression prevents much enjoyment and turns necessary tasks into impositions; painful memories and feelings surface and thoughts of what might have been become overwhelming.

People are stressed and I pick up a lot of the tension and unhappiness that are in the air.

Even though I am not a Christian, I hate the way that consumerism and secularism have taken over what should be a religious festival. 

Despite not being religious, I did go to a Christmas service once. It was at the suggestion of a neighbour. One fateful Christmas Eve many years ago, I went for the first time ever to a Midnight Mass. It was held in Westminster Cathedral, and I went just for the carols and the spectacle.

The outing was pure delight from beginning to end. I felt very well, euphoric even; I had the feeling that something wonderful was on the horizon; the weather was very mild; we saw some happy looking policemen driving around in a car that was covered in Christmas decorations.

I enjoyed the lights, the surroundings and the music inside the Cathedral very much. Just as midnight was striking, I wished very hard for a good cause to support and a new and exciting interest in my life for the coming New Year. 

The expression “Be very careful what you wish for as you may well end up getting it” is becoming a platitude but is very relevant here. A ‘chance’ meeting with a stranger on New Year’s Eve brought me exactly what I had wished for. For good or evil? I still don’t know. It led to some of the best and some of the worst moments of my life, including a Christmas that I still can’t bear to think about.