Poems (Argent)/To Little Dear

by Alice Emily Argent

TO LITTLE DEAR.

A NEW YEAR'S WISH,

A GLAD New Year! with what a mute caress
 The words do fall as here T whisper low
Into thine ear this flood of tenderness
 That seems to echo, "Sweet, I love thee so."

A glad New Year! a peaceful lot be thine,
 A happy household in a world of strife,
Thyself the ruling priestess of a shrine,
 Wherein do meet the mother and the wife.

Thy little Christ-child lying in his cot,
 With sleepy eye and days of restful ease;
How blessed and happy is his tranquil lot,
 He feels no pang of bygone memories.

But innocence, her halo pure and fair,
 Encircles him with aureole of light,
Flickering around his curls of sunny hair,
 The eye of faith discerns it gleaming bright

Dear child! I think of One in days gone by,
 Who had no place on earth to lay His head;
Our glorious Saviour who came down from high,
 A manger only for His board and bed!

A glad New Year be thine! God send thee health,
 A happy childhood, beautiful and sweet;
Be good and kind, give out thy heart's true wealth,
 Dance into life with joy around thy feet.

It is a frosty night, and calm and still,
 The mystic moon dips downward her soft light,
She sails in radiant beauty o'er the hill,
 A sovereign queen within the halls of night.

A glad New Year! I hear the merry peal
 Of tuneful bells athwart the midnight sky.
"Dear, art thou listening to the sounds that steal
 The tears up from the heart into the eye?"

A glad New Year! a glad New Year they ring,
 Those sweet, sweet bells across the drifted snow;
My heart goes with them and to thee doth sing
 Its endless "auld lang syne," "I love theese!"