The uniquely human invention of measured time is never as celebrated or feared as on New Year’s Eve. A tick of the clock or a turn of the page and the calendar begins anew. Triumphs of the past year become endearing memories while tribulations become learning opportunities from which new hope may spring.

Literature recognizes the potent thoughts and emotions that New Year’s Eve evokes in us. We can find references in such classic literature as Silas Marner; Middlemarch; Black Beauty; Little Women; and A Doll’s House. It populates such timeless poetry as Tennyson’s In Memoriam and Hardy’s New Year’s Eve. It appears in modern titles, too, such as White Teeth and The Children of Men.

Writers have a lot to say about New Year’s Eve. Two of my favorite witty quotes are:

Yesterday, everybody smoked his last cigar, took his last drink and swore his last oath. Today, we are a pious and exemplary community. Thirty days from now, we shall have cast our reformation to the winds and gone to cutting our ancient shortcomings considerably shorter than ever. — Mark Twain

Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account. — Oscar Wilde

Authors should take to heart T.S. Eliot’s note on New Year’s Eve: For last year’s words belong to last year’s language. And next year’s words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning.

Wishing everyone a New Year of hopeful beginnings and happy endings!