The New Year
Come you with dangers to fright us? or hazards to try out our souls?
Then may you find us undaunted; determined to get to our goals.
Now, white are the pages you bring us to fill with the tales of our deeds,
And I pray we shall square at the finish the work of our lives with our creeds.
Oh, child of a year, do you wonder what here upon earth you shall find?
America shows you a people united in purpose and mind;
Whatever you bring us of danger, whatever you hold to affright,
I pray that we never shall lower our standards of truth and of right.
You find us a people united, full pledged to the work of the world,
To banish the despot and tyrant, our banner in battle’s unfurled;
And here to a world that is bleeding and weary and heartsick you come,
Whatever you’ve brought us of duty—we’ll answer the call of your drum.
We may weep in our grief and our sorrows, we may bend ’neath the might of the blow,
But never our courage shall falter, and never we’ll run from the foe.
We know not how troubled our pathways shall be nor how sorely beset,
But I pray we shall cling to our honor as men and never our purpose forget.