The Old Year's Gone Away: Happy New Year!

 The Old Year’s gone away 

 To nothingness and night: 

We cannot find him all the day 

 Nor hear him in the night: 

He left no footstep, mark or place

 In either shade or sun:

 The last year he’d a neighbour’s face, 

 In this he’s known by none. 

All nothing everywhere: 

 Mists we on mornings see 

Have more of substance when they’re here 

 And more of form than he. 

He was a friend by every fire, 

 In every cot and hall— 

A guest to every heart’s desire, 

 And now he’s nought at all. 

Old papers thrown away, 

 Old garments cast aside, 

The talk of yesterday, 

 Are things identified; 

But time once torn away 

 No voices can recall: 

The eve of New Year’s Day 

 Left the Old Year lost to all.

John Clare 
English, 1793 – 1864

Images:

Triumph of Time, The Master of Petrarch's Triumphs

French, 15th to 16th century

Personification of Time in a flower garland, Carstian Luyckx

Flemish, 1623 - 1675
A Masque of Days, Walter Crane
English, 1845 - 1915