Alfred Lord Tennyson’s melancholy poem “Ring Out Wild Bells” has been reverberating in my soul these past few days. It’s an LDS hymn that we sing near New Year’s. The story goes (although I can’t find internet confirmation) that the composer, Crawford Gates, was a soldier in WWII, despairing over all of the death and misery around him, when he read this poem and composed the music. The music is in a minor key, suiting the death of a year, and is laced with longing and a little bit of regret. Many complain that it’s depressing, that the new year should be sung in with glad tidings and joyous celebrations; I love it, because I’ve always found New Year’s to be a somewhat mournful day and frankly I think the music suits the frosty “winteriness” of the season (if you’re in the northern hemisphere, I suppose).

Anyway, I thought I’d share the lyrics. And link you to the LDS version of the song.

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 thy 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.

Happy New Year, my friends and family! I am, as always, so blessed and grateful to have you in my life.
(And now to bed – I’m on call tomorrow – ouch!)