Thursday, December 29, 2011

Ring in the thousand years of peace

In the hope of peace and good will in the New Year, here's a poem from one of the masters:

In Memoriam, [Ring out, wild bells]
by Lord Alfred Tennyson


Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.

2 Comments:

Blogger Trees of the Field said...

Wonderful! Thanks for posting Tennyson. May we continue to read the great writers of the nineteenth century!

9:17 AM  
Blogger Susie/NuevaCantora said...

Ooh - we sang a really interesting modern piece based on this poem in the university/community choir I sing with here in MI... wish I could remember the composer now...

8:44 AM  

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