The New Year + 

He was the one man I met up in the woods + 

That stormy New Year’s morning; and at first sight, + 

Fifty yards off, I could not tell how much + 

Of the strange tripod was a man. His body, + 

Bowed horizontal, was supported equally + 

By legs at one end, by a rake at the other: + 

Thus he rested, far less like a man than + 

His wheel-barrow in profile was like a pig. + 

But when I saw it was an old man bent, + 

At the same moment came into my mind + 

The games at which boys bend thus, High-Cockalorum, + 

Or Fly-the-garter, and Leap-frog. At the sound + 

Of footsteps he began to straighten himself; + 

His head rolled under his cape like a tortoise’s; + 

He took an unlit pipe out of his mouth + 

Politely ere I wished him “A Happy New Year,” + 

And with his head cast upward sideways muttered⁠— + 

So far as I could hear through the trees’ roar⁠— + 

“Happy New Year, and may it come fastish, too,” + 

While I strode by and he turned to raking leaves. + 