from 'In Memoriam' CVI.  
               - Alfred Lord 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.  
  
Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)