Closing Out the Year in Hawaii: Reflections from 1845

Reflections On the Close of the Year 1845

The Friend, Honolulu: January, 1846 Edition

Momentous thought! another year

Has winged its rapid flight,

'Tis past with all its sights and scenes

Forever from our sight-

'Tis gone with all its hopes and fears-

Its joys and sorrows-smiles and tears.

Vail mortals! insects of an hour,

How fleeting is your life,

How hard you toil for wealth and power,

All eager for the strife;

Why would ye grasp an empty name

A tyrant's or a miser's fame?

My youth's companions, where are ye?

And thou, the fondly loved-

The world's a dreary waste to me

Since from your midst I roved;

Have ye run out life's latest sands,

Or gone like me to foreign lands?

Alas! for many a saddened heart

Will mourn the year that's gone,

To whom the world can ne'er impart

The joys forever flown;

Nor bring them back, the loved-the lost-

The beautiful-the parent's boast.

Blest is the man whose mental eye,

Looks far beyond the world,

He sees the glories of the sky

Harmoniously unfurled-

Bright vision of eternal youth,

Eternal as the God of truth.

Honolulu, Dec. 31st.