1
As I was walking round by Peckham rye,
Canvassing many drawings in rotation.
What would there, or subject I should try
Novel indeed, yes fit for this occasion,

5

I Unto mine advisor said, says I
Would — Posh, it does not matter what I said.
But coun

s

c

el saye I did receive, whereby
I was involved a beaten path to tread.
Following where such authorities have led

10

To glean the ground wherewith that path it scattered

2
To much for simile. But twould be neede
To leave you any longer sir, in doubt.
What sort of rhyme requires such strange prelude

15

On what my lyric is to be about
How to commence, what sing of wher, conclude,
On in what mad and mangled numbers seen,
Know that I'lly try, with Thalian fire imbued
(Thalia, yes, and that the January one)

20

To sing of years long past; and years to come
A moralizing there, much babbled of by some

3
you know sir what I always feigned

aimed

to be.
At least a something more than common rhyme

25

iAnd therefore that I never deigned to be
A groveling annual rapid flight of time'
But always seized on what remained to me
Of every theme, by other voice unsung,
Nor brooks my rhyming spirit chained to me

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To song, on

o

W

hich the changes have been rung

By mightier minds, on paths long roved among
Or lyre to one dull air by thousand finger string,

4
Now after such preamble, how youll stare

35

To hear what subject I am going to righ write on
Really, twould make a minor poets hair
His puzzled pericranium stand upright on
To dream of such a thing. That I should dare
To write on New years day. Choice theme indeed.

40

There is a dry love subject, one must bare
Of all good matter. Hard in a very deed
To put the life inʼt. Would I may succeed
All ye who with one well, I pray you wish me speed

5

45

But donʼt Imagine that I mean to say
My subject in itself, is despicable
But hat been handled in so rude a way
Theres many a one would think himself unable
To make a new thing out, and take away

50

That musty borrowed ar, so often found
In many a moral ode on Newyearsday
Each like the other and the constant sound
Of lapse of years and ages rolling round
Is heard through and every line with doubling due to sound

55

6
Enough, for if you find of aught
Of substance good, in this my strange effusion
You never can excuse its want of thought
Its heedless rup

up

ture and most awkward confusion

60

Because the straightened. Most other hacks have .

7
Yet it is worthy of a poets mood
To moralize no pleasant years gone by

65

And as he sitteth

waketh

in the solitude
Of the veiled night; to converse with the sky.
Look out between the planets and find food
And think, (and is the thought first teaching good.).
How many is the lapse of years, like him.

70

Beneath the redlights of the heaven have stood
To meditate and visualize within.
Upon whose grave the have hell now drinks in.
The moon lushe, shadowy weed dream.

dew drops, that hidedown along the stars rays dim

8

75

Methinkes

Nay, Iʼm peremptory. Well then at present
I bid good morrow to the company.
And bid them smile and be of excellent cheer.

80

I wonʼt be babbling of the midnight sky.
Nor talk of graves, or such like things of fear,
Nor bother them about the by gone year
Lo let me sing for Iʼm a stranger in arrsan

8

85

Now, gentle Master Twelvemonth, good Monsieur.
Remember how we have rejoiced this day,
And held a feast uponʼt, and all for you.
How glad, to see the old year past away
How monstrous glad to welcome in the new

90

We hold arrested. and therefore smile and shine.
Gladden they months and stretch thy spring time through

A cheery, jocund sunny space of time
And cause to lighten it with lustre fine
The And kindly blare the stars of each solstice sign

95

9
And leave us not, good year so rapidly.
Nor when thou hast tricked out the topmost
Of every tree with green leaves gaudily.
Breathing new life through every withered sprig

100

And lifted every forests cress on high
I pray thee do not faint them known and here
Nor pluck them from their boughs, nor make them fly
Its will of mind that whistle for and mean.

But donʼt imagine that I mean to say

105

Thou canʼt not check thy goings, nor delay
The survey of earth in her eternal course.
Go then and bring us back this warning day
This knot upon the line, that must perform
Teach us how for the vessel on its way

110

Slides down the stream of time. Nay, I could be exceeding serious but I wonʼt betray
My promise, for I always love to see
Most merry faces, listening to me,
Round this our table. Father, drink your cup of tea.

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115

I hope the waterʼs boiling. Stir the fere
Till the white gas leap blazing from the coals,
Till high on dusky wing the flames aspire
Let not the winters cold freeze up our souls:

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120

--|-00|-|-00|-00
Iʼm in the humour, Iʼll myself inspire
Myself with fury most poetical
Iʼll blaze abroad, and strike a lofty lyre,
With an Apollinean tone withal.

125

I sing the year. Ye months, come listen all
That is if ye have any years atall

January
I am here, I am here
With my bright coronal

130

With gems which I tear
From the ice of the north
Is my coronal set
Dark clouds at my bidding come fleecily forth
And the hail that they bear

135

With a terrible rattle
When they join in battle
Comes striving adorn — through the wish of the air
While the streams at river frown tell my fury be past
In blue icicles fair

140

Upon every spot where
They were wont to flow brightly
She frozen up fast
Do the stars glimmer nightly,
And in heavens laid bare

145

Twinkling twinkling
With lustre most rare
Lovely light sprinkling
Over the snow,
In the hard frosty ground that doth be high & low

150

So enthralling around

The forest then reareth
It is branches on high
Full broadly, nor feareth
The frown of the sky.

155

But Iʼll bid my two daughters
The frost and the snow
Their firm letters until that the torrents may flow
And the light hearted waters
Shall sing as I go.

160

Nay, I would think I heard the gear come thumping
Who on the sever rides swiftly oer the hills
Which whose most pleasant voice all heaven is ringing
Whose luster all the empty rooms fills
Whose red and burning beams far westward flinging

165

12
Come ye cold winds at Januaryʼs call
From your cold

high

dwellings in the realms of snow.
And cloud where many an avalanche fall
Is heard resounding from the mountains brow,

170

Come, ye cold winds and ye Januarys call.
On whistling wings, and with white flakes bestow
The earth till Marches wildes

Februarys

reign restore
The race of torrents to their wonted flow,
Whose waves shall stand in silent ice no more

175

But lashed by Marches maddened winds shall roar,
With voice of ire, and heat the rocks on every third.

13
Bow down your heads, ye flowers, in gentle guise,
Before the dewy rain that April sheds.

180

Whose sun shines through her clouds with quick surprise
Sheddings soft influences on your heads
And wreath ye round the rosy warmth that flies.
To scatter perfumes in the path of June
Till Julys sun upon the mountains rise

185

Triumphant, and the wan and weary moon
Mingle her cold beams with the burning lume
That Sirius shouts through all the dreary midnight gloom.

14
Rejoice ye fields, rejoice, and wave with gold,

190

When August round her precious gifts is flinging.
Lo, the crushed wan: is slowly homewards rolled
Through all the air the reapers songs are lunging
Septembers steps her fa(double scratched out) juicy stores unfold
If the spring blossoms have not blushed in vain.

195

Octobers foliage yellows with his cold,
In rattling showers Novembers misty rain
From every stormy cloud descends awain.
Till dark December snows close up the year again.

15

200

Again, (large space) again, and still again, for ever
Hour after hour, successive changes show it
Why should we care , or should we endeavor (last two letters sideways)
To stop their motion. Go it, Gemmen, Go it
But all I ask is, that youʼll mix together

205

In due proportion clear and cloudy sky,
Nor stop our pleasure by your dirty weather.
Then when your dance of Twelve hath tripped it by,
Ill take my measures up again and I
Will sing you out, and in, most merrily

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16
I know not where Iʼve gained the information
That all the ladies letters always are
Most influential in their termination
But these, my final lines youʼll find by far

215

The most appropriate for this occasion
For I almost in the style

way

of conversation
Yet in a style and metre that looked knowing
With copious thought and rhymes most sweetly flowing(last 3 letters squeezed in)
I might slip in some thoughts about the year thats going

220

I (left side) 17 (centered)
And wishes that the coming one may be
Fraught with all pleasantness, and go before
Scores upon scores, all dowried pleanteously
With Gods best blessings, and abundant store

225

And though it is not given us to be free
From every pain in this dark earth below.
Oh, mine own dearest Father, may you see
The

3

4

0^s. 50^s. 60^s. 70^s. go
The final end of every ill we know

230

And hail the Fathers smile, that through his frown (will show written above h)

"as I was walking round by Peckham rye