A World-War Sonnet

Goodbye, Old Year! You brought so much of woe, Such frightful carnage and such needless pain That none desire you longer to remain; Instead, the world rejoices that you go, To what dim bourne few either care or know; They only know that hill and vale and plain, Are sodden with blood of countless slain, And that you failed to stop its wasteful flow.

We welcomed you with joyful pealing bells, Expecting kindness from the New Year’s hand; It held the armaments of war instead, And turned their ringing into funeral knells. From stricken homes in every stricken land, We bid you, "Go, and leave us with our dead!"