On New Year’s Day
On New Year’s Day he plans a cruise
To Heaven straight—no time to lose!
Vowing to live so virtuously
That each besetting sin shall flee—
Good resolutions wide he strews
On New Year’s Day.
A while he minds his p’s and q’s,
And all temptations doth refuse,
Recalling his resolves so free
On New Year’s Day.
But in the long year that ensues,
They fade away by threes and twos—
The place we do not wish to see
Is paved with all he meant to be,
When he next year his life reviews—
On New Year’s Day.