An Exile’s New Year - Poem

Outside the snow is falling, the wind is blowing cold;

A robe of ghastly darkness, the wide earth doth enfold:

Within the blaze is dying; the shadows fill the room,

And my heart is sick and heavy with shadows of the tomb.

II.

Oh, my heart is sick and heavy, my breast is full of woe,

For the friends I’ve left behind me, and the joys of long ago:

There were golden days, and loyal hearts, and some who loved me dear;

While now I’ve naught but shattered hopes to soothe my sorrows here.

III.

Then rage ye blasts of Winter across the Norland snow;

And harrow up the vasty deep, ye stormy winds that blow;

The tempest fiend is on the roof, he howls and rumbles there,

But fiercer round my withered hearth, the demon of despair.

IV.

Round many a happy hearth to-night, there’s joy and festive cheer;

And music soft, and laughter gay, to hail the glad new year:

But he who’s far from friends and home, whose eye and star are dim,

Whom no one loves and no one cheers, sweet Saviour, pity him!

Published in Donahoe’s Magazine (1884).

Rev. Keegan is known to have used the pseudonym “Pastheen Fionn” when writing for periodicals.

An Exile's New Year