Ring Out, Wild Bells by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

As the New Year begins, Manhattan University invites you to pause and reflect with Ring Out, Wild Bells by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, drawn from his larger elegy In Memoriam. Set on New Year’s Eve, the poem uses the ringing of church bells as a call to moral renewal, urging us to release grief, injustice, and falsehood, and to welcome compassion, truth, and hope in their place.

Both deeply personal and strikingly timely, Tennyson’s words resonate across generations, reminding us that renewal is not passive but intentional. As we step into January, this Classic Reading offers a thoughtful meditation on endings and beginnings, inviting listeners to consider not only what the new year might bring, but what we are willing to let go of to move forward with purpose.

 

About This Reading

Tennyson wrote In Memoriam over many years following the death of his close friend Arthur Henry Hallam. Ring Out, Wild Bells appears early in the poem and is set on New Year’s Eve, a liminal moment when time itself seems to pause—making it the perfect space for reflection, grief, and hope.

The bells are not merely celebratory. They are agents of moral change, ringing out what harms the soul and society, and ringing in what might heal both.

In this reading, Br. Robert Berger, FSC of the Kakos School of Arts and Sciences, brings Tennyson’s Ring Out, Wild Bells to life, offering a reflective New Year meditation on renewal, conscience, and hope.

READ AT POETS.ORG