As 2024 comes to a close, we're all looking forward to a better 2025. To mark the occasion, there are lots of beautiful New Year poems celebrating this momentous change to a new calendar.
So, whilst you're carrying out your New Year's traditions, here are a few of our favourite funny and famous New Year poems to read aloud or to yourself, which may cause nostalgia or inspire you with some positive quotes:
Ring Out, Wild Bells by Lord Alfred Tennyson
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Ring out the grief that saps the mind
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.
Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.
Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring the fuller minstrel in.
Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.
Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.
The Year by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
What can be said in New Year rhymes,
That’s not been said a thousand times?
The new years come, the old years go,
We know we dream, we dream we know.
We rise up laughing with the light,
We lie down weeping with the night.
We hug the world until it stings,
We curse it then and sigh for wings.
We live, we love, we woo, we wed,
We wreathe our brides, we sheet our dead.
We laugh, we weep, we hope, we fear,
And that’s the burden of the year.
I'll Be A Memory Champ by C. A. Lynch
This year, my resolution is truly insane,
To become a world-renowned memory champ, I proclaim!
I'll memorize every word in the dictionary,
From A to Z, it'll be legendary.
But as I flip through the pages, my mind goes blank,
Words become jumbled, it's like a bad prank.
I can't even remember what I had for breakfast,
Let alone the meanings of words so complex.
I try mnemonic techniques, but they fail,
The words slip away, like a snail.
My memory is a sieve, nothing sticks,
This resolution is definitely sick.
So, here's to my ridiculously crazy aim,
To be a memory champ, what a shame!
But as I forget and stumble along the way,
I'll embrace the laughter and enjoy the day.
Auld Lang Syne by Robert Burns
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne!
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne.
We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.
And surely ye’ll be your pint stowp!
And surely I’ll be mine!
And we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.
We twa hae run about the braes,
And pou’d the gowans fine;
But we’ve wander’d mony a weary fit,
Sin’ auld lang syne.
We twa hae paidl’d in the burn,
Frae morning sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae roar’d
Sin’ auld lang syne.
And there’s a hand, my trusty fere!
And gie’s a hand o’ thine!
And we’ll tak a right gude-willie waught,
For auld lang syne.
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne.
We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.
Stephanie Spencer is the Deputy Digital Editor for Yours. Having worked across a variety of topics, from travel and food to pharmaceuticals, she also has a particular interest in mental health and wellness having studied biosciences at University.