Famous Holiday Poem

This poem published in, "In Memoriam A.H.H.", is an elegy (a poem of lament for someone who has passed away) and uses an ABBA Rhyme Scheme. It was written about Alfred Tennyson’s friend, Arthur Henry Hallam, who was engaged to Tennyson’s sister. Arthur Henry Hallam died suddenly at the age of twenty-two. In this poem, Tennyson (1809-1892) shares about casting aside all the bad and painful things of the year. Due to the heartache that year brought him, Tennyson was ready to put the grief behind him. This could also be considered a New Year’s poem about starting anew. Alfred Tennyson’s first son was named Hallam, after his best friend.

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Famous Poem

Ring Out, Wild Bells

Alfred Tennyson By more Alfred 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 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.

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