When midnight came to close the year,

  We sighed to think it thus should take

The hours it gave us—hours as dear

  As sympathy and love could make

Their blessed moments,—every sun

Saw us, my love, more closely one.

But, Cara, when the dawn was nigh

  Which came a new year's light to shed,

That smile we caught from eye to eye

  Told us, those moments were not fled:

Oh, no,—we felt, some future sun

Should see us still more closely one.

Thus may we ever, side by side,

From happy years to happier glide;

And still thus may the passing sigh

  We give to hours, that vanish o'er us,

Be followed by the smiling eye,

  That Hope shall shed on scenes before us!