New Every Morning
EVERY day is a fresh beginning,Every morn is the world made new.You who are weary of sorrow and sinning,Here is a beautiful hope for you,—A hope for me and a hope for you.
All the past things are past and over;The tasks are done and the tears are shed.Yesterday’s errors let yesterday cover;Yesterday’s wounds, which smarted and bled,Are healed with the healing which night has shed.
Yesterday now is a part of forever,Bound up in a sheaf, which God holds tight,With glad days, and sad days, and bad days, which neverShall visit us more with their bloom and their blight,Their fulness of sunshine or sorrowful night.
Let them go, since we cannot re-live them,Cannot undo and cannot atone;God in his mercy receive, forgive them!Only the new days are our own;To-day is ours, and to-day alone.
Here are the skies all burnished brightly,Here is the spent earth all re-born,Here are the tired limbs springing lightlyTo face the sun and to share with the mornIn the chrism of dew and the cool of dawn.
Every day is a fresh beginning;Listen, my soul, to the glad refrain,And, spite of old sorrow and older sinning,And puzzles forecasted and possible pain,Take heart with the day, and begin again.
Words in this poem
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- sunshine n.
- The light of the sun, or the place where it shines; the direct rays of the sun, the place where they fall, or the warmth and light which they give.
- atone v. t.
- To set at one; to reduce to concord; to reconcile, as parties at variance; to appease.
- chrism n.
- Olive oil mixed with balm and spices, consecrated by the bishop on Maundy Thursday, and used in the administration of baptism, confirmation, ordination, etc. [OE. crisme, from AS. crisma; also OE. creme, fr. OF. cresme, like the AS. word fr. LL. chrisma, fr. Gr. friare, fricare, to rub, Skr. gharsh, E. friable, fricti]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
New Every Morning is in the public domain. This text is taken from A Few More Verses, Project Gutenberg ebook #49518; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Susan Coolidge, New Every Morning, in A Few More Verses (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #49518, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/coolidge-few-more-verses/new-every-morning.html, id L23408.
Form and metre
New Every Morning is 30 lines in 6 stanzas of 5 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABB, complete in 4 of its 6 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABABB beginningA · newB · sinningA · youB · youB
- 2 -A-AA over · shedA · cover · bledA · shedA
- 3 ABABB foreverA · tightB · neverA · blightB · nightB
- 4 ABABB themA · atoneB · themA · ownB · aloneB
- 5 ABAB- brightlyA · bornB · lightlyA · mornB · dawn
- 6 ABABB beginningA · refrainB · sinningA · painB · againB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| EVERY day is a fresh beginning, | 9 | /˘····˘/˘ |
| Every morn is the world made new. | 8 | /˘······ |
| You who are weary of sorrow and sinning, | 11 | ···/˘·/˘·/˘ |
| Here is a beautiful hope for you,— | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| A hope for me and a hope for you. | 9 | ········· |
| All the past things are past and over; | 8 | ········ |
| The tasks are done and the tears are shed. | 9 | ········· |
| Yesterday’s errors let yesterday cover; | 11 | /˘˘/˘·/˘˘/˘ |
| Yesterday’s wounds, which smarted and bled, | 9 | /˘˘··/˘·· |
| Are healed with the healing which night has shed. | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| Yesterday now is a part of forever, | 11 | /˘˘·····˘/˘ |
| Bound up in a sheaf, which God holds tight, | 9 | ········· |
| With glad days, and sad days, and bad days, which never | 11 | ··········/ |
| Shall visit us more with their bloom and their blight, | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| Their fulness of sunshine or sorrowful night. | 10 | ·/˘·/··/˘· |
| Let them go, since we cannot re-live them, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Cannot undo and cannot atone; | 9 | ˘/˘/·/˘˘/ |
| God in his mercy receive, forgive them! | 10 | ···/˘˘/˘/· |
| Only the new days are our own; | 8 | /˘····/· |
| To-day is ours, and to-day alone. | 9 | ···/···˘/ |
| Here are the skies all burnished brightly, | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| Here is the spent earth all re-born, | 8 | ········ |
| Here are the tired limbs springing lightly | 9 | ···/·/˘/˘ |
| To face the sun and to share with the morn | 10 | ·········· |
| In the chrism of dew and the cool of dawn. | 10 | ·········· |
| Every day is a fresh beginning; | 9 | /˘····˘/˘ |
| Listen, my soul, to the glad refrain, | 9 | /˘·····˘/ |
| And, spite of old sorrow and older sinning, | 11 | ····/˘·/˘/˘ |
| And puzzles forecasted and possible pain, | 10 | ·/˘/·˘·/˘· |
| Take heart with the day, and begin again. | 10 | ······˘/˘/ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.