When I read a New Year’s poem I found this week in The Illustrated Treasury of Poetry for Children, edited by David Ross, I knew I needed to share the poem with you all. Since it is New Year’s Eve as I begin…and now New Year’s Day as I finish this post…I felt I mush share it with you now. It was true then, as it continues to be true now.

As I watch this year end with the slow descent of the crystal ball in Times Square, people cheering, confetti falling, and hear the sound of church bells ringing nearby, I think about what they mean. They are all wishful symbols of letting the old year die, and welcoming the New Year with hopes of health, prosperity, and the never ending need for universal peace. Let this New Year’s poem remind us of what is most important…

A New Year’s Poem: Ring Out, Wild Bells

The poem Ring Out, Wild Bells, by Alfred Lord Tennyson, is a New Year’s poem asking us to ring out all the misery and sadness behind us, and to ring in with what should be. Even though it was written in the 1800s, it continues to ring true for the present.

The New Year’s poem is a poem meant to be shared around the world, with friends, acquaintances, and foes. Share this New Year’s poem with neighbors and strangers, with young and old, with politicians and media sources throughout the year…to never stop. Peace has always been a New Year’s wish, this year it needs to be a strong, demanding plea.

Please share a New Year’s Poem for peace…

Ring Out, Wild Bells

by Alfred Lord Tennyson
1809-1892

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 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.

My wish for you is to have a happy and safe year.
Nana