In the fine, sonorous words of 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 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, Nige! Here's to another 12 months of incomparable blogging.
ReplyDelete