1. Reading Lesson

Read the following poem, using the study helps as you read.

Christmas

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.

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.

- Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

2. Study

1. Did you ever "watch the old year out"? Did the bells ring at twelve o'clock? Can you see the wild sky, the flying cloud, and the frosty light; and can you hear the wild bells?

2. Did Tennyson wish to have all "the old" rung out? Think of this as you read the other stanzas.

3. Feud, hard feeling and bitter quarrelling. Re-dress, setting right what is wrong.

4. The first line means, Let people stop working for things which it is no longer necessary to work for.

Has "party strife" been rung out of the United States yet?

5. What does want mean here? Coldness here means lack of interest in the good that needs to be done. What is a minstrel?

6. What is pride? What is pride in place? Pride in blood? What is false pride! Is any kind of pride good?

Slander is made from an old word that means the spring of a trap, the stick on which the bait is placed. Is its present meaning connected with the old? Civic slander means slander connected with politics.

7. What diseases are scientists now trying to "ring out"?

The "lust of gold" is a very great desire for money. Why is it "narrowing"? What is being done now to prevent wars?

8. Make a list of synonyms for valiant.

The last line says all that has been said before. Christ taught that all men are brothers. Read the poem again and see that this is what Tennyson wanted people to feel.

3. Memory Work

Select four stanzas to copy and learn. Notice which lines in each stanza rhyme.

4. Written Exercise

Tennyson calls his poem mournful. Perhaps it is a little sad, because it tells only of the things that the writer wanted to have rung out of the world or brought into it. Think of some things that you do not want to lose from the world.

Write at least three sentences, and tell in each one thing that you want to have kept in the world during the coming year.