The Passing of the Year Appearances Quotes

Here's where we start to really get to know the Old Year as a character.  Our speaker focuses carefully on his appearance, maybe to help us get used to this transformation of an idea into a person.  When we read these lines, we think of an old man, doubled over, leaning on a cane, and grimacing a little as he walks.  We think the speaker really wants to emphasize this feeling of age and wear and tiredness, because that's what he's trying to shake off as the year changes.

The "Old Year" is a character, for sure, since he walks around, and has a face and an expression.  Maybe he's not exactly like a person, though.  Or at least not like someone you could just hang out and have a good time with.  In a way, the more we learn about his appearance, the less we know.   In this moment, we really have a sense of him being far away and hard to read.  It's a bit of a paradox, since usually personification like this is used to make abstract ideas like the year seem closer and more relatable.  In this case, it's hard to tell who this guy is, and how exactly we're supposed to feel about him.

Again, it's hard for us not to feel like these people the speaker is seeing are somehow not quite real, not quite fully human.  We don't get their names, or any sense of what they do or where they come from.  In this case, the young Maiden is reduced to one aspect of her appearance – her face.  She's not called "Suzie," or "young woman."  She is "girl-face."  Guys, try calling your female friends that, and see how far you get.  It's a little weird, right?  Even as we look more closely at these people, there's still a strong sense of distance.  We can't get past the surface.

This is a different kind of appearance, a happy face at last.  Still, notice that we don't get past the front door – we are left to guess and judge based on the face and the clothes alone.  We've said this before, but it's worth repeating.  This poem is all about faces, about staring at them intently and trying to decipher them, even though they seem kind of mysterious and strange.

This one's pretty intense, isn't it?  We thought it was worth pointing out the kind of back-and-forth mirror action that's going on here.  The speaker is looking at these people, trying to guess things based on their appearances, while they are looking at the face of the Old Year, trying to "find" something in his "filmy gaze."  See why we think this poem is a little strange and mysterious?  Service is a pretty down to earth guy for the most part.  In this case, though, all this confusing, tantalizing stuff about appearances makes him seem like he's got some kind of secret, which is sort of fun.