The Gate of The Year (God Knows)

The poem, originally titled "God Knows" and written by Minnie Louise Haskins in 1908, is most famous for its opening preamble.

​Here is the full text:

​The Gate of the Year

​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.

​Why it became famous

​The first section (the preamble) was famously quoted by King George VI in his 1939 Christmas Broadcast. At the time, Britain had just entered World War II, and the King used these words to offer courage to a nation facing a very uncertain and dark future.

​Interestingly, the King didn't know who the author was when he read it; the BBC eventually tracked down Minnie Louise Haskins, who was a retired academic at the London School of Economics, a few days later.