As we ring in the New Year with much pomp and fanfare the touching poetry ‘Ring Out Wild Bells’ by Lord Alfred Tennyson reminds of the transitional nature of life and also of the world at large, of which transition of the old year to the New Year is also a part.
It is the custom that with each passing year all that is old would pave way for all that is new. In fact this is the philosophy of life and death cycle as well which forms an integral part of human existence. In this poem the poet hopes that whatever transition takes place should be in a positive direction.
Ringing out in the title of the poem itself is suggestive of bidding adieu to the old year and welcoming the New Year. The poem that was published in 1850 still holds water even in this century because of the universal nature of the message it conveys and the hope of positivity that it evokes.
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 navyress 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.