Ring Out, Wild Bells

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. H , published in According to legend, the inspiration for the poem came when Tennyson, staying in the vicinity of Waltham Abbey, heard the Abbey Church bells clanging in the wind on a stormy night.

As a child in the large family of an impoverished country Church rector, Tennyson would have seen and perhaps experienced many of the features of society that he wrote about in Ring Out, Wild Bells. The imagery of the ringing of the Church bells on New Year's Eve is an evocation of Tennyson's view of what needs to be wrung out of society and what needs to be ushered in with the New Year. The suggestion is that the time has come to put an end to grieving and move on the stage of acceptance of death - to let him go line 7 because grief saps the mind.

The suggestion is that with the end of the year comes the time for a new beginning. Lines seem to be Tennyson's expression of his political philosophy, written in the context of Britain's socio-economic and political situation in the mid-nineteenth century. The Kingdom is divided along sharp class boundaries into those who are rich and those who are poor.

1. Ring Out Wild Bells By Alfred Tennyson;
2. Mayo Clinic Antimicrobial Therapy: Quick Guide.
3. Quick Links - Poets.org?
4. Antibiotics - A High Yield Review For Physician Assistant (PA) Students (1);
5. Navigation menu.
6. Jane Hunter Growing a Legacy.
7. Ring Out, Wild Bells.

This is the cause of much conflict. It is time to redress the ills of society, for it to become kinder, more equal, and just. The times are faithless and harsh and Tennyson is hoping that his lines, expressing his hopes for the future note the first-person tense of 19 will be echoed in the chiming of the New Year bells.

He hopes that more powerful voices than his own - the fuller minstrel line 20 - will bring about positive social change. Lines are an exposition of the theme of equality and justice. Class divisions in society are exemplified in false pride in place and blood line Both those who have inherited high social positions and those who occupy civic positions line 22 are at fault.

Tennyson's New Year wish, emphasised by the repetition of the words Ring in at the beginning of both lines 23 and 24, is that nobler characteristics will emerge in the future. Lines express a wish that the bells will usher out greed and war and bring a thousand years of peace. The final stanza, number eight, summarizes what has gone before. Everything bad about the past must be discarded and the poet hopes for a future in which life is lived in accordance with true Christian values. What hope does Tennyson show for the future in ring Out Wild Bells poem?

Is the poem a criticism of the present? The first ten lines allude to the grief that he and his sister, Emilia, were feeling after the unexpected death of Arthur Henry Hallam in , to whom Emilia had become engaged in There was a great deal of concern in the immediate family for Emilie's future wellbeing. What Tennyson wishes for in these ten lines is that, as the year ends and a new one begins, his sister will be able to let go of grief and move forward.

Of course, this type of deep grief has experienced by many people, and so the lines have appeal to a wider audience than his very personal one. The remaining lines are a social commentary about the prevailing political climate and inequality in society. And they express a wish for social reform. Tennyson wishes that the worst aspects of human nature will be corrected - that corruption, political ruthlessness, and ambition, and the resultant class pride, poverty, and social inequality will be replaced by a more caring, equal and compassionate society.

I would argue that these lines. The poem is a heartfelt wish for a fairer, kinder more equal society, which would involve those in positions of wealth and power to change their social attitudes and habits. To comment on this article, you must sign in or sign up and post using a HubPages Network account. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners.

HubPages and Hubbers authors may earn revenue on this page based on affiliate relationships and advertisements with partners including Amazon, Google, and others. To provide a better website experience, owlcation. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so. Ring in the nobler modes of life, With sweeter manners, purer laws. Ring in the love of truth and right, Ring in the common love of good. 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.

Section 9 Fair ship, that from the Italian shore Sailest the placid ocean-plains With my lost Arthur's loved remains, Spread thy full wings, and waft him o'er. So draw him home to those that mourn In vain; a favourable speed Ruffle thy mirror'd mast, and lead Thro' prosperous floods his holy urn.

All night no ruder air perplex Thy sliding keel, till Phosphor, bright As our pure love, thro' early light Shall glimmer on the dewy decks. Sphere all your lights around, above; Sleep, gentle heavens, before the prow; Sleep, gentle winds, as he sleeps now, My Friend, the brother of my love; My Arthur, whom I shall not see Till all my widow'd race be run; Dear as the mother to the son, More than my brothers are to me.

Strong Son of God, immortal Love, Whom we, that have not seen thy face, By faith and faith alone, embrace, Believing where we cannot prove; Forgive these wild and wandering cries, Confusions of a wasted youth; Forgive them where they fail in truth, And in thy wisdom make me wise. That God, which ever lives and loves, One God, one law, one element, And one far-off divine event To which the whole creation moves.

Other Tennyson texts Three other Tennyson texts are used in this composition. 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. The first line introduces are a familiar concept of ringing in the new year. Here bells are described as being happy rather than wild, this creates a much softer image.

It then proceeds to talk about the year going and instructs to let him go. Is the year being personified? Is the narrator telling us to let go of the previous year? Or is this referencing an actual person? The last line of this stanza is a paraphrase of the first line.

Ringing in the New Year

It certainly could be interpreted that way. 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. Here we see this idea of bell ringing continue. This is an interesting way of saying we need to let go of things like grief.

The emotion is described aptly as sapping the mind. The suggestion being inferred that we will see them again but somewhere else, IE on the other side, or in heaven. In the final two lines of the stanza the narrator calls for an end to disputes between the classes. These are all concepts that seems appropriate at Christmas and New Year and tie in with the traditional meaning of the celebrations. Ring out a slowly dying cause, And ancient forms of party strife; Ring in the nobler modes of life, With sweeter manners, purer laws.

The negativity felt towards the old system is even more clear here as once again the word dying is used. The things that happened last year and probably before that clearly are felt to have not been working by Tennyson.