The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses

New Year's Eve

   It's cruel cold on the water-front, silent and dark and drear;
    Only the black tide weltering, only the hissing snow;
   And I, alone, like a storm-tossed wreck, on this night of the glad New Year,
    Shuffling along in the icy wind, ghastly and gaunt and slow.

   They're playing a tune in McGuffy's saloon,
     and it's cheery and bright in there
    (God! but I'm weak — since the bitter dawn, and never a bite of food);
   I'll just go over and slip inside — I mustn't give way to despair —
    Perhaps I can bum a little booze if the boys are feeling good.

   They'll jeer at me, and they'll sneer at me,
     and they'll call me a whiskey soak;
    ("Have a drink?  Well, thankee kindly, sir, I don't mind if I do.")
   A drivelling, dirty, gin-joint fiend, the butt of the bar-room joke;
    Sunk and sodden and hopeless — "Another?  Well, here's to you!"

   McGuffy is showing a bunch of the boys how Bob Fitzsimmons hit;
    The barman is talking of Tammany Hall, and why the ward boss got fired.
   I'll just sneak into a corner and they'll let me alone a bit;
    The room is reeling round and round...
      O God! but I'm tired, I'm tired....

   Roses she wore on her breast that night.  Oh, but their scent was sweet!
    Alone we sat on the balcony, and the fan-palms arched above;
   The witching strain of a waltz by Strauss came up to our cool retreat,
    And I prisoned her little hand in mine, and I whispered my plea of love.

   Then sudden the laughter died on her lips, and lowly she bent her head;
    And oh, there came in the deep, dark eyes a look that was heaven to see;
   And the moments went, and I waited there, and never a word was said,
    And she plucked from her bosom a rose of red and shyly gave it to me.

   Then the music swelled to a crash of joy, and the lights blazed up like day,
    And I held her fast to my throbbing heart, and I kissed her bonny brow.
   "She is mine, she is mine for evermore!" the violins seemed to say,
    And the bells were ringing the New Year in — O God! I can hear them now.

   Don't you remember that long, last waltz, with its sobbing, sad refrain?
    Don't you remember that last good-by, and the dear eyes dim with tears?
   Don't you remember that golden dream, with never a hint of pain,
    Of lives that would blend like an angel-song
      in the bliss of the coming years?

   Oh, what have I lost!  What have I lost!  Ethel, forgive, forgive!
    The red, red rose is faded now, and it's fifty years ago.
   'Twere better to die a thousand deaths than live each day as I live!
    I have sinned, I have sunk to the lowest depths —
      but oh, I have suffered so!

   Hark!  Oh, hark!  I can hear the bells!...  Look! I can see her there,
    Fair as a dream... but it fades... And now —
      I can hear the dreadful hum
   Of the crowded court... See! the Judge looks down...
     NOT GUILTY, my Lord, I swear...
    The bells — I can hear the bells again!...  Ethel, I come, I come!...