Merrily On High

I love church bells, and I often wish I lived in a country parish in England (or anywhere) where the old bells still ring. But on this day I feel their absence keenly. There ought to be bells! I want to hear them ring in this glorious morn, their loud clanging clamorous on the morning air, proclaiming the Good News:

The Savior is here! Rescue has come! The old life is gone, a new life begun! Merry Christmas!

In the absence of such bells, and in my desire to share something “exceeding merrie” on this most joyful solemn day of Our Lord’s nativity, I give you second best: a wildly ringing poem by dear Uncle Alfred.

 

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, In Memoriam CVI

 
Ring in the Christ that is to be! Can I get an amen?
 
 
Photo by St. Andrew Orthodox Church.