Thursday 31 December 2009

RING OUT THE OLD... RING IN THE NEW...

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.


- from In Memoriam A H H by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1849)

And here's part of Tennyson's poem set to music by Victor and Kaprena Worth...



Like many others, we face 2010 with some apprehension and not a little anxiety. There are concerns about work and health and, above all, for David and I, where we will be living next year...

But all any of us can do is put our trust and faith in hopes for a better resolution to our problems than our fears lead us to expect.

Which is why I wish you, most sincerely---

A HAPPY & HEALTHY
and, above all, HOPEFUL
NEW YEAR!

9 comments:

Sheila said...

It's good to see the text of the poem. On the Today programme yesterday morning, guest editor PD James read it to finish the programme. It's a lovely piece.

Sending you both all the best for 2010 and a happy resolution to your concerns.

Picarmat: a small Italian carpet that one just has to buy as a souvenir.

Wrinkled Weasel said...

I put the Tennyson poem on my blog, at about the same time you did. Great minds, etc.

http://wrinkledweasel.blogspot.com/2009/12/happy-happy-christmas-that-can-win-us.html

Why should this be of interest? You don't know me. Ah, Brian, but you do. You do.

Brian Sibley said...

SHEILA - I once served on a committee with P D James, so that's now two things that she and I have in common with one another!

W WEASEL ESQ - We know each other, you say? I scanned your blogs (very interesting, I will be back!) for clues but without success. Any hints in the offing? Of course, any friend of the Wild Wood is automatically a friend of mine!

Wrinkled Weasel said...

It has been very amusing and entertaining to see you pop up over the years.. I managed to purloin a copy of Disney's "Dr Syn" - the Patrick MCGoohan version, not so long ago, and there you were, being quite knowledgeable, and enthusiastic about it. I longed to see this again after what must be a 40 year break, and was amazed to find how tight, and sparkling and fresh it seemed. For a moment, I was back at the pictures on a Saturday morning.

Clues? Mmm. Have you given up pipe smoking?

Brian Sibley said...

Well, I gave up smoking a pipe 20 years ago! But if you knew me as a pipe smoker it must have been post-school and, therefore, in my real working life. I keep looking at the picture of you and trying to remove the moustache and a few decades... Sadly, I am not getting very far!

Wrinkled Weasel said...

The picture is a bit of a red herring. It's me, but with a fake moustache and hair do. The Suit belongs to me, but only goes out when people die.

I can fold a ribbon fountain, know what a thumb tip does and am old enough to have spent time with Harry Stanley and Edwin Hooper.

This is placed to confuse you even further since, you never knew about my, erm, secret.

Let me know when this gets tedious.

Brian Sibley said...

The magic is probably just another red herring - I've never smoked a pipe since belonging to The Magic Circle!

Either we knew one another when I lived in Chislehurst or else you worked for the London Borough of Bromley or for one of the subsidiaries of Goode, Durrant & Murray of Chiswell St, London...

Brian Sibley said...

However, you like Rupert and Rackham I see, so you must be one of the Good Guys, whoever you are!

Brian Sibley said...

WRINKLED WEASEL writes...

"Thank you for your kind words.

"One of my desert island books will be The Wind in the Willows. It breaks a lifelong rule which is never to read a book that has to have a map in it to explain the fictive geography. Never read Tolkien, or seen the movies,never managed Narnia either. I must be a philistine posing as a sybarite.

"I knew you when you lived in Chislehurst - that bit was right..and I remember you telling me you were gay, in 1978, a long time before it became fashionable - or compulsory.

"Does my blog scream "this bloke worked for the London Borough of Bromley"? I hope not. Nearer to Fleet Street.

"You can delete this post if you like, but also drop me an email if curiosity has gotten the better of you

"Otherwise, I am happy to have once had the pleasure of your company. We are all a lot older now, I am twice married with grown up kids and am what I always was, a dilletante and lover of the country life."


Thanks WW, I posted your comment for you so as to exclude your e-mail address and, yes, you will be hearing from me.

Sorry about the London Borough of Bromley insult!! ;-) I eventually managed to escape --- but for the grace of God etc...

I think you are OK with reading The Wind in the Willows, since the book was first published without a map and E H Shepard's map-endpapers are surely purely decorative.

Certainly the book doesn't need in the way that Middle-earth, Narnia and suchlike places require a degree of cartography!