We meet today To thank Thee for the era done, And Thee for the opening one.

In these lines Whittier frames a communal act of worship at a turning point in time: a gathering that looks backward with gratitude and forward with hope. The speaker thanks God both for what has been completed (“the era done”) and for what is beginning (“the opening one”), suggesting that endings and beginnings alike belong within providence. The diction (“Thee”) and the ceremonial “We meet today” evoke a public religious observance—often the tone of Whittier’s occasional verse—where collective memory and moral aspiration are joined. The couplet’s balance implies a spiritual discipline of holding past and future together: honoring what has been, while receiving the unknown as a gift and responsibility.