The New Year
Come you with dangers to fright us? or hazards
to try out our souls?
Then may you find us undaunted; determined to
get to our goals.
Now, white are the pages you bring us to fill
with the tales of our deeds,
And I pray we shall square at the finish the work
of our lives with our creeds.
Oh, child of a year, do you wonder what here
upon earth you shall find?
America shows you a people united in purpose
and mind;
Whatever you bring us of danger, whatever you
hold to affright,
I pray that we never shall lower our standards
of truth and of right.
You find us a people united, full pledged to the
work of the world,
To banish the despot and tyrant, our banner in
battle’s unfurled;
And here to a world that is bleeding and weary
and heartsick you come,
Whatever you’ve brought us of duty—we’ll
answer the call of your drum.
We may weep in our grief and our sorrows, we
may bend 'neath the might of the blow,
But never our courage shall falter, and never
we’ll run from the foe.
We know not how troubled our pathways shall
be nor how sorely beset,
But I pray we shall cling to our honor as men
and never our purpose forget.
Other works by Edgar Albert Guest...
