[Editor: This poem by “Dryblower” Murphy, written for the New Year, was published in The Sunday Times (Perth, WA), 1 January 1933.]
Happy New Year
By DRYBLOWER.
A Happy New Year to you who are reading
These lines as the Old Year goes down to its grave;
You who have plenty and you who are needing
The shekels that succor and save.
A Happy New Year to the babe in the cradle
(Crow on little heart, take life as it comes),
Whether you sup from a silvery ladle
Or you whose progenitors sigh in the slums;
Miner and merchantman, farmer and farrier,
Town-man and country-man, distant and near;
Even humanity’s hawk and the harrier
Entitle themselves to a Happy New Year.
Dark as the days have been, dark with foreboding,
The gloom may be gilded if courage be kept;
Long has the labor been, heavy the loading,
The angels of succor no second have slept.
Though half the world through the darkness is groping,
Slashed by the sabre, gashed by the gun;
Somewhere is calling the voice of good hoping,
Somewhere is shining prosperity’s sun.
The long and the short of you, stalwart and tall of you,
Be of good comfort and be of good cheer;
Every good soul of you, each one and all of you,
God grant you grace and a Happy New Year.
Source:
The Sunday Times (Perth, WA), 1 January 1933, p. 1 (First Section)
Editor’s notes:
farrier = someone who fits horseshoes onto horses (someone who shoes horses); a blacksmith; someone who looks after the health of horses and treats them for any diseases; a non-commissioned officer who looks after, and oversees, the health and upkeep of horses
gild = to cover something with a thin layer of gold, gold leaf, or a gold-coloured substance, or to make something look that way (an archaic meaning is to make something bloody or red)
progenitor = a direct ancestor or forebear; a predecessor; an originator, founder, or source of a development or idea; originator, precursor, predecessor
sabre = a sword with a curved blade, especially used by cavalry
See: “Sabre”, Wikipedia
shekel = an ancient coin; a currency unit of several ancient peoples (including the Carthaginians, Edomites, Israelites, Mesopotamians, Moabites, and Phoenicians); a currency unit of modern Israel; a generic reference to money (especially in the plural: shekels), especially in a light-hearted or facetious sense; a unit of weight; derived from the ancient measurement of weight, especially referring to coins of a shekel weight; shekels of various types are mentioned in the Bible, such as shekels of gold (e.g. 1 Chronicles 21:25), silver (Judges 17:2), and bronze (1 Samuel 17:5), as well as being a general measurement of weight (Numbers 7:31)
See: 1) Thomas Hockenhull, “The shekel: A modern-day coin with 5,000 years of history”, Coin World, 14 Nov 2014
2) Mary Fairchild, “What is a shekel? An ancient coin worth its weight in gold”, Learn Religions (Dotdash Meredith), 11 July 2019
3) “Jewish and non-Jewish coins in ancient Canaan”, Jewish Virtual Library
4) “Weights in the Bible”, Jewish Virtual Library
5) “Shekel”, Wikipedia
succor = assistance, help, or support, particularly in a time of distress or difficulty (also spelt “succour”)
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