New Year

MORTAL:
'The night is cold, the hour is late, the world is bleak and
drear;
Who is it knocking at my door?'

THE NEW YEAR:
'I am Good Cheer.'

MORTAL:
'Your voice is strange; I know you not; in shadows dark I grope.
What seek you here?'

THE NEW YEAR:
'Friend, let me in; my name is Hope.'

MORTAL:
'And mine is Failure; you but mock the life you seek to bless.
Pass on.'

THE NEW YEAR:
'Nay, open wide the door; I am Success.'

MORTAL:
'But I am ill and spent with pain; too late has come your wealth.
I cannot use it.'

THE NEW YEAR:
'Listen, friend; I am Good Health.'

MORTAL:
'Now, wide I fling my door. Come in, and your fair statements
prove.'

THE NEW YEAR:
'But you must open, too, your heart, for I am Love.'

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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