• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

The Institute of Australian Culture

Heritage, history, and heroes; literature, legends, and larrikins

  • Home
  • Articles
  • Biographies
  • Books and booklets
  • Ephemera
  • Poetry and songs
  • Slang
  • Timeline
  • Topics
    • Anzac Day
    • Australia Day
    • Australian Aborigines
    • Australianism
    • Australian literature
    • The Eureka Rebellion
    • Explorers
    • Significant events and commemorative dates

New Year Thoughts [poem by Philip Durham Lorimer]

2 March 2013 · Leave a Comment

[Editor: This poem by Philip Durham Lorimer was published in Songs and Verses by Philip Durham Lorimer: An Australian Bush Poet, 1901.]

New Year Thoughts

’Tis only a day, passing by in a year,
And to-night it will number as one,
The first of the new in its onward career,
And the last of a day that is done.
It follows the rest in the chase to its end,
With a wing that can never be still;
’Tis either the touch of a foe or a friend,
Whichever we choose at our will.

Ah! yes, there are hearts leaping up at its birth,
Overcome with the blush of its dawn;
They’re dancing with joy round the family hearth,
And are glad on Life’s emerald lawn.
But others there are on the stony byways
With their wants only known to a few;
Though sunless their homes, there’s a peace in their praise,
In the day that to them is also new.

All phases of life and all choosing a course
That to-day may be new in design;
Some moan in the lanes, in the shades of remorse,
While a few move in circles divine.
The fallen are there, with the prodigal son,
With the widows and motherless too;
And those who have toiled and have victories won,
In the year they now slowly review.

Together they stream, and the din of the crowd
Covers woe and the weight of its cares;
While poverty doffs and abandons its shroud,
And uplifteth its soul by its prayers.
All gather to-day from their forests of hope,
A fresh flower to enliven desire,
And living, move on, and are ready to cope
With the world, for a step that is higher.

All merrily chimes ev’ry bell in the air
With the laughing eyes leaping to light;
Oh! name it not now that mortality there
Seldom wakes to the truth of delight;
Seldom turns into God in its pleasures, to give
Any thanks for its hours or its days;
Not caring to know who ordains them to live
On His earth, with a life full of praise.

Ah! life is too short; it is but a day —
Wherein gratitude best may be shown;
Each moment is sealed to us creatures of clay
When the night bars the day that has flown.
No moment of Time, but each heart may look up
With a gratitude burning within;
No frailty, but there is a Hand with a cup
Full of balm for the weary in sin.

Bowral, December 1, 1894.



Source:
E. A. Petherick (editor), Songs and Verses by Philip Durham Lorimer: An Australian Bush Poet, London: William Clowes and Sons, 1901, pages 145-147

Editor’s notes:
creatures of clay = humans; a reference to the idea that God made man out of clay; from Genesis 2:7 in the Old Testament of the Bible, “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul”, which has sometimes been referred to as God making man out of clay (e.g. “Man is made out of clay; he is an animal. Into the clay of man God has breathed the spiritual life; he is a son of God.”) [see: Rev. Lyman Abbott, “Conversion”, The Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW), Saturday 13 August 1892, page 9]

Filed Under: poetry Tagged With: Philip Durham Lorimer, poem, Songs and Verses by Philip Durham Lorimer (1901), SourceArchiveOrg, year1901

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Australian flag, 100hThe Institute of Australian Culture
Heritage, history, and heroes. Literature, legends, and larrikins. Stories, songs, and sages.

Featured books

The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses, by Banjo Paterson A Book for Kids, by C. J. Dennis  The Bulletin Reciter: A Collection of Verses for Recitation from The Bulletin The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, by C. J. Dennis The Complete Inner History of the Kelly Gang and Their Pursuers, by J. J. Kenneally The Foundations of Culture in Australia, by P. R. Stephensen The Australian Crisis, by C. H. Kirmess Such Is Life, by Joseph Furphy
More books (full text)

Featured lists

Timeline of Australian history and culture
A list of significant Australiana
Significant events and commemorative dates
Australian slang
Books (full text)
Australian literature
Rock music and pop music (videos)
Folk music and bush music (videos)
Early music (videos)
Recommended poetry
Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
Poetry and songs, 1901-1954
Australian explorers
Topics
Links

Featured posts

Advance Australia Fair: How the song became the Australian national anthem
Brian Cadd [music videos and biography]
Ned Kelly: Australian bushranger
Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]

Some Australian authors

E. J. Brady
John Le Gay Brereton
C. J. Dennis
Mary Hannay Foott
Joseph Furphy
Mary Gilmore
Charles Harpur
Grant Hervey
Lucy Everett Homfray
Rex Ingamells
Henry Kendall
“Kookaburra”
Henry Lawson
Jack Moses
“Dryblower” Murphy
John Shaw Neilson
John O’Brien (Patrick Joseph Hartigan)
“Banjo” Paterson
Marie E. J. Pitt
A. G. Stephens
P. R. Stephensen
Agnes L. Storrie (Agnes L. Kettlewell)

Recent Posts

  • Mercenary Mum, by Neryl Joyce [book review]
  • The Year of the Angry Rabbit, by Russell Braddon [book review]
  • Western bush fire: Several crops burnt [5 January 1906]
  • Buy “Australian-Made” [by W. R. Bagnall, 22 June 1928]
  • The Bad Boy [poem regarding Henry Parkes, 12 May 1877]

Top Posts & Pages

  • The Bard and the Lizard [poem by John Shaw Neilson]
  • The Man from Snowy River [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • The drover’s wife [by Henry Lawson]
  • The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • Australian slang

Categories

Archives

Posts of note

The Bastard from the Bush [poem, circa 1900]
A Book for Kids [by C. J. Dennis, 1921]
Click Go the Shears [traditional Australian song, 1890s]
Core of My Heart [“My Country”, poem by Dorothea Mackellar, 24 October 1908]
Freedom on the Wallaby [poem by Henry Lawson, 16 May 1891]
The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]
Nationality [poem by Mary Gilmore, 12 May 1942]
The Newcastle song [music video, sung by Bob Hudson]
No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest [poem by Mary Gilmore, 29 June 1940]
Our pipes [short story by Henry Lawson]
Rommel’s comments on Australian soldiers [1941-1942]
Shooting the moon [short story by Henry Lawson]

Search this site



For Australia


Copyright © 2022 · Log in