To-day how many thousands will not hear,
There in their changeless timeless world of light,
The sad year’s solemn passing in the night,
The silent coming of a happier year.
For this new year, though full of woe and fear,
Shall prove that Right has triumphed over Might,
Shall see and end of war’s accursed blight,
And Peace among the Nations drawing near.
We cannot hear their voices, clasp their hands,
The faces that we loved no more we see;
But they whose names are bright on Honour’s roll
In some far world shall know we reached their goal,
That nobler for their deed our Empire stands
Crowned with the Will that set all Europe free.
(Times, 1 January 1915, p. 7)