Burning the Old Year

“Burning the Old Year” touches upon themes of permanence, absence, regret, and the passage of time. Rich imagery, metaphor, and symbolism carry the poem, and its message connects what people leave behind and what they carry forward year after year. The reader can interpret the speaker of the poem as Nye. The poem offers a strong sense of universality so that any reader, anywhere, can potentially understand and relate to the actions and themes of the poem.

The first stanza begins with the speaker describing the burning of letters and notes at the end of the year. Nye writes, “Letters swallow themselves in seconds” (Line 1), using personification to describe the disintegration of the letters she is burning. She depicts notes left by friends as being “transparent scarlet paper” (Line 3). Notes written between friends are likely not written on transparent paper, and the reader can infer that the transparency and color of the paper symbolizes both triviality and flammability. The transparent paper is red, connecting the notes to the color of fire and the physicality of the burning.

The stanza ends with Nye writing that the letters and notes “sizzle like moth wings, / marry the air” (Lines 4-5). “Sizzle” acts as an onomatopoeia here, as the sound of the word mimics what it describes. The moth wings represent the fragility of what is being burned, as a moth’s wings are delicate and easily destroyed. The final line, “marry the air” (Line 5) depicts the burned notes and letters turning into smoke and thus combining with the air surrounding the fire. The reader can view the act of burning as both a conscious and subconscious act by the speaker to destroy and forget the memories associated with what is being burned.

The second stanza reaffirms the theme of destruction from the first stanza. Nye writes, “So much of any year is flammable, / lists of vegetables, partial poems” (Lines 6-7). Taking a look at the flammable articles the speaker lists, the reader can see how these items are indicative of the mundane, inconsequential aspects of daily life. Lists and partial poems are likely a regular occurrence for the speaker—especially if Nye, a poet, is considered the speaker of the poem.

The lists and partial poems in the second stanza also contrast with the letters and notes in the first stanza. Letters and notes correlate to correspondences with loved ones, while lists and poems relate to communication and creativity with and as the self. On the whole, Nye depicts how the memories connected to relationships with others and with the self are as impermanent as the objects representing them.

The second stanza closes with the lines, “Orange swirling flame of days, / so little is a stone” (Lines 8-9). Here, the flame used to describe the days of one’s life depicts the flammability and destruction of them as a concept and a memory. If a day were a flame, it would brightly burn before burning out, leaving only smoke and ash. “So little is a stone” (Line 9) describes the speaker’s perspective that not much of human life has actual permanence. A stone cannot be burned and destroyed, and the stone in the poem symbolizes the aspects of life that people carry forward—major events such as births, deaths, celebrations, and achievements.

By the third stanza of the poem, Nye shifts to a theme of absence and loss:

Where there was something and suddenly isn’t,

an absence shouts, celebrates, leaves a space.

I begin again with the smallest numbers (Lines 10-12).

This stanza offers reflection on what is lost each year as time passes, and the feelings left behind in the wake of absence. The articles and memories completely dissolve, but the spaces they occupied now remain pointedly empty. However, the empty spaces once occupied “shou[t]” and “celebrate” (Line 11) as though these blank regions are rejoicing in being free of what was once there. These lines support the idea that the speaker is purposefully ridding herself of certain articles and memories. Now that the spaces they occupied are free, she has room to “begin again with the smallest numbers” (Line 12), conveying how little is carried into the new year. There is a quiet hope here, as “begin[ning] again” (Line 12) is often an act of courage and excitement for what will come.

“Burning the Old Year” closes with another shift to the theme of regret. There is a “Quick dance, shuffle of losses and leaves” (Line 13), displaying the combination of what is lost and left during the burning. The meaning of “leaves” (Line 13) here may be twofold: First, dsried leaves from a tree or bush are often used to start fires and are known to easily burn or even start fires; second, the speaker centers on how she is “leaving” things in the past as the new year begins.

The speaker laments “only the things I didn’t do / crackle after the blazing dies” (Lines 14-15). Though what Nye has left undone was not physically burned, this line indicates that the memories associated with unfinished actions—possibly regrets—are still there. They “crackle” (Line 15) (another onomatopoeia), suggesting that these misgivings (and the small number of “stones” (Line 9)) are all that is left of the past year. The poem purposefully closes with the theme of regret so the reader can learn from that which the speaker is personally discovering. If the things left undone had been acted upon or completed, perhaps the speaker would be carrying more stones (certainty or permanence) and less remorse as she enters into the new year.