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.
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.
4 comments:
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Veseloho Rizdva i z Novym Rokom!
Bliain úr faoi shéan is faoi mhaise duit!
Happy gnu year! I hope you weren't in Times Square but were somewhere fun, eg getting massively hopped up on sugar with nondrinking friends (although it turns out that you can get a sucrose hangover, who knew?).
Happy 2008!
My friend Robert came up to visit me at the University of Minnesota. This was during spring break 1983, although both our schools were on quarter systems, so it was in fact still winter, about a month before most schools took their break. Robert stayed a while and then we drove to take him back to Southern Illinios University in Carbondale. After a couple of days there I drove back to Minneapolis by myself.
Did it all in one straight shot, about 18 hours. Got out once at a gas station in Moline. Drove around Rock Island Arsenal for a while; no way they'd let me on base now, in this paranoid post-9/11 world.
The only other stop that I remember was in Wisconsin, in a village magically named Tennyson. It was the middle of the night, high up on a hill, going up old Highway 61, looking down to the Misssissipi about a mile or so to the south. Under the star-jammed sky and the big old moon shining out over the new snow, I pulled off to the shoulder and just sat there for a long time, taking it all in.
Golly, that'd be twenty-five years ago now, wouldn't it?
Back then we had a particular bulletin board on the wall in the student union for ride sharing. You'd post an index card with your phone number and dates and destination and whether you were looking for a ride or a rider. I drove a guy and shared gas and tolls between Minneapolis and Chicago one Christmas break. Do they do that at colleges anymore? Or is that just on craigslist too nowadays?
Wesołych Świąt i szczęśliwego Nowego Rok.
S Novym Godom! Soon it will be S Rozhdestvom Christovom. Years ago, after the Christmas Liturgy, our parish priest greeted me with the traditional Ortho-hail, "Christos Rozhdayetsya!" "Slavite Yeho," I responded, as per spec. "Ah," he said, "An educated consumer is our best customer." The clergy get punchy.
Serialkarma and I knew the joy of taking a wrong turn on the exit to our college town and ending up at the gates to the CIA's top-sekrit U No Kom in Heer Farm ("I know! Let's put our training facility right next to a major tourist park!"). How many students got sobered up by meeting those 19-year-olds with automatics? Many many.
The hard-copy ride boards still existed when I was there, lo a decade back, but by now they're doubtless on the interwebs. Damn kids. Stay out of my petunias.
Post a Comment