‘The burden of a year'

“Father Time and Baby,’’ 1909

What can be said in New Year rhymes, 

That’s not been said a thousand times? 

The new years come, the old years go, 

We know we dream, we dream we know. 

We rise up laughing with the light, 

We lie down weeping with the night. 

We hug the world until it stings, 

We curse it then and sigh for wings. 

We live, we love, we woo, we wed, 

We wreathe our prides, we sheet our dead. 

We laugh, we weep, we hope, we fear, 

And that’s the burden of a year.

‘‘The Year,’’ by Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919). She spent much of her adult years living in Branford, Conn.

Branford Town Hall

— Photo by Kenneth Zirkel