Calvin Ross, Wild Bells for the New Year

Tennyson’s Prescience

In 1850 Alfred, Lord Tennyson was appointed Poet Laureate in Britain and his poem “Ring Out, Wild Bells” was published. It forms part of In Memoriam, his 90-page elegy to a friend, Arthur Henry Hallam, who had died at the age of twenty-two. What strikes me is an uncanny note on how relevant the poem is to this season of transition from 2020 to 2021. It’s as if Tennyson had astonishingly clairvoyant insight into the heinous COVID invasions of the last ten months.

As you read this poem for its foresight, what darkness from 2020’s cruel assaults with related governance and economic issues comes to mind? What constellations of light rise for hopeful relief and healing in 2021?

From the poem’s lyrical lines, I hear sounds of bells ringing across all the landscapes of our lives: personal, familial, societal, and spiritual. Perhaps it will prompt you, as it has me on this opening day of the new year, to think of what you wish to ring out of your life and to ring in. As a writer, what dawdling habits do you want to replace with flourishing nimble creativity? The bell rope is dangling just over the glow from your laptop screen. It’s within your reach, my friend. Pull it. Let its wild sounds peal forth with the successive clicks from your keyboard keys.

I’ll close with a bit of a stretch to another metaphor. Unlike his father and grandfather who had worked the ground as potato farmers, Seamus Heaney chose to do his digging with his squat pen that rested between his finger and thumb (cf. his wistful poem “Digging”). I see you entering this new year ringing out and ringing in wild bells with your Uni-ball Black Roller. The Irish poet did his digging with his pen. Do your bell ringing with yours. There’s an audience waiting with ears pitched for clear, tolling sounds from your heartfelt artistry.

Blessings and sincere wishes to all of us for a happy new year and high hopes for an in-person class reunion in Wichita in October.

Calvin Ross