The words below are often recited at New Year’s time. They are a poem by Minnie Louise Haskins which she crafted in 1908. She had studied at the London School of Economics where she also later taught.
The poem first appeared in a collection published under the title, The Desert.
It became particularly well known in 1939 when, in his Christmas Broadcast, King George VI quoted it. It words were particularly apt for a nation facing the darkness and uncertainty of War and in these dark days it remains powerful.
It is suggested that Princess Elizabeth brought it to the attention of her father and later, it became a special favourite of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother who found comfort from it throughout her life.
The poem appears on a plaque in the Royal Chapel at Windsor.

Gill Henwood has drawn the poem to my attention and has supplied a rather lovely photo  of Gate to Tarn Hows from the woods above Coniston. Looking towards Fairfield Horseshoe on the Helvellyn range. English Lakes UNESCO World Heritage Site (The Lake District).

THE GATE OF THE YEAR

‘God Knows’

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:
“Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown”. 
And he replied: 
“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way”. 
So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night.
And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.

So heart be still
What need our little life
Our human life to know,
If God hath comprehension?
In all the dizzy strife
Of things both high and low,
God hideth His intention.

God knows. His will
Is best. The stretch of years
Which wind ahead, so dim
To our imperfect vision,
Are clear to God. Our fears
Are premature; In Him,
All time hath full provision.

Then rest: until
God moves to lift the veil
From our impatient eyes,
When, as the sweeter features
Of Life’s stern face we hail,
Fair beyond all surmise
God’s thought around His creatures
Our mind shall fill.

[Minnie Louise Haskins]

Gate to Tarn Hows from the woods above Coniston. Looking towards Fairfield Horseshoe on the Helvellyn range.
English Lakes UNESCO World Heritage Site (The Lake District).

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