Random Chance

In my last post I mentioned how hard it had been to concentrate on anything of late, particularly reading a book, so I thought I would start out with a small thing, like poetry or a short story, sort of ease back into focusing.  And actually I managed to read a novella...yes, I read the whole thing!!  And okay, it was short, didn't take much effort, but whatever, I finished it and happily it appears my brain seems to be balancing out a tiny bit.

So, feeling invigorated by my successful novella read, last Friday, I picked up a poetry anthology I've had for ages and decided to read whatever page the book opened up to. I generally read contemporary poetry--though the anthology covered a broad swath of poets--so I was curious what poem would be randomly given.

Here it is, and isn't this just utterly compelling for 2020?

“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.”

What a great poem, not only for starting a new year, but the last three stanzas were exactly right for living through this year of the virus, the deaths, the political strife. I reread the poem several times, then had to smile that out of the many pages the book could have opened to, this was the one chosen by Fate, the Universe, or the roll of the dice. The fact it's so relevant was pretty surprising.

So, who do we have to thank for this perfect 2020 poem? Who could so wonderfully have given us a glimpse of what is vs what could be? 

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

"Ring Out, Wild Bells"

1850

Seriously, 170 years later and still the words resonate as if they were written for this very moment in time.  I'm also not sure that it isn't the saddest thing ever that nothing has changed in nearly two centuries; that what was worthy of note back then is of equal significance now.

The poem is so fitting for the new year ahead.  With any luck we'll ring out the horrors and calamities of 2020 and the wild bells will ring in promise and hope for 2021.

After all, "...the Grinch's heart grew three sizes that day," so there just might be a chance for us.