Today in church we sang a traditional LDS hymn for the new year, “Ring Out, Wild Bells.” This hymn is either absolutely loved or absolutely despised, depending on who you ask, but to me, the lyrics are powerful, showing great profundity and insight. And following a year of turmoil, loss, pain, and struggle, it is the ideal poem to transition from 2020 to 2021.
The words to this hymn were written by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (published in 1850) as part of a larger work, In Memoriam A.H.H., in tribute to his dearest friend Arthur H. Hallam who died from a stroke at the age of 22. This lengthy work, initially entitled, The Way of the Soul, explores grief and trial in all their forms, and looks at how they can lead one to greater faith, greater wisdom, and greater strength. It is the timeless cry of a soul yearning for understanding when the events around are too difficult to comprehend.
It is after a long discussion on the desire for personal internal peace (with some of the most beautiful language in all of poetry) that Tennyson takes that theme to a broader and more external level. This is the section, from whence the hymn is taken, that seems especially prescient and meaningful today:
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 the 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.
These words feel particularly poignant when read on the heels of a year like the one just past, and with struggles personal and public continuing into the new year. They read like a world wish list. Who wouldn’t want the end to disease, civic spite, want, and class warfare, while desiring love, truth, right, and common love of good? These words are reminiscent of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem, also about bells, written a little more than a decade later in the midst of a horrific civil war:
Then in despair I bowed my head,
“There is no peace on earth,” I said.
“For hate is strong, and mocks the song,
“Of peace on earth, good will to men.”
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep,
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep.
“The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
“With peace on earth, good will to men.”
At the conclusion of the Christmas season and at the start of a new year, it is good to look forward to a time of peace and goodwill. There is no struggle, no trial, no sorrow that will not ultimately be set right. The Psalmist’s words, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning,” applies as both a short-term adage and as a reminder of the eternal hope in Christ and in His triumphal reign forever and ever. That doesn’t take away from the pain of today, but it does give light amidst the darkness.
The bells Tennyson speaks of are ringing out in the darkest time of the year, when the night is longest and the light seems far away. We can anticipate that yearned for light by holding onto our faith and by reaching out, as people of goodwill, to all around us. We can hasten the time when there will be peace on earth by putting aside bitterness and hate and instead acting in love and charity towards all. We can be the “larger heart, the kindlier hand” as we work to dispel the “darkness of the land.” We can look forward to the day when wrong fails and right prevails, when warfare ceases, and when we finally have the thousand years of peace. There is hope, no matter how it feels now. Ring out, wild bells; ring out the sorrow of the past and ring in the beauty of tomorrow.
Look to God and Live... Joyfully! 