About the poem:
The poem "Ring Out Wild Bells" was published in 1850. The poem is part of a larger work entitled In Memoriam, the work was an elegy to Arthur Henry Hallam, who died at the age of 22. You may therefore sometimes see books or websites give the poem's title as "In Memoriam (Ring out wild bells)". Hallam had been engaged to Tennyson's sister, and was a close friend.
Ring Out Wild Bells
Ring Out Wild Bells
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.
What is an elegy?
An elegy is a poem written to express sadness when someone has died. A eulogy is the speech made about a person at their funeral. An elegy does not contain facts about the person but is only written to express feelings of grief.