By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Seeing in the New Year is a time-honoured tradition, so it should come as little surprise that many of the greatest poets have written about the New Year in their work. Below is our pick of ten of the best New Year poems, along with some information about each poem.
Anonymous, ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’.
Ande þer þay dronken, and dalten, and demed eft nwe
To norne on þe same note on Nwe Ȝerez euen;
Bot þe knyȝt craued leue to kayre on þe morn,
For hit watz neȝ at þe terme þat he to schulde.
Þe lorde hym letted of þat, to lenge hym resteyed,
And sayde, ‘As I am trwe segge, I siker my trawþe
Þou schal cheue to þe grene chapel þy charres to make,
Leude, on Nw Ȝerez lyȝt, longe bifore pryme.
We’re kicking off this list of the best New Year poems with a long narrative poem from the fourteenth century, partly because it features the earliest known instance of the phrase ‘New Year’s Eve’ (as ‘nweȝerez euen’) and partly because