Ring Out, Wild Bells!

Alfred Lord Tennyson gave us this 

more than a century ago ...

    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.

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 it 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.

________________________
For when the right day comes.
You are dearly loved.