RING OUT, WILD BELLS

 

                RING OUT, WILD BELLS

On this new year’s eve, let us sing with English poet Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892):

Ring out wild bells, to the wild sky…

 

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

…………………………………………………..

            The stanzas given above don’t make the whole poem, but they are as relevant today as they were long ago when the poem was published in 1850 and Tennyson as made Poet Laureate.

           

            The following stanza may also be added because of its eternal relevance:

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.

                                                                                                                                                                                                            *******

G.R.Kanwal

31^st December 2023                

.

VIEWS ABOUT NICKNAMES

 

          VIEWS ABOUT NICKNAMES

Negative names given to persons instead of their real names are called nicknames. They are provocative and offensive and may encourage the victims to retaliate. Donkey for a dull person or fatty for a fat man is a nickname. But such words as Longfellow or Wordsworth are not nicknames. They are surnames common to all the members of a family. They don’t incite their bearers.

            Here are some more views about nicknames.

1.     A nickname is the heaviest stone the devil can throw at a man.

2.     . A good name wears out; a nickname lasts forever.

3.     Nicknames don’t disappear. They continue to stick to their recipients because they have a good deal of adhesive power.

4.     There may be laws whereby nicknaming a person may be punishable.  

5.     There is also a positive view about nicknames. It says that nicknames have been a part of human culture from time immemorial. They serve as endearing terms of familiarity, often used by friends, family, or close acquaintances to add an extra layer of intimacy to personal relationships.

G. R. Kanwal

29^{th December 2023}

ARNOLD ON FAITH

 

                ARNOLD ON FAITH

Matthew Arnold was an English poet and cultural critic (1822-1888). He was the

eldest son of DR. Thomas Arnold, the famous headmaster of Rugby school.

 

He is known for preserving   eternal values in a changing society and makes severe attacks on rising  cultural anarchy.

 

He was a romantic poet influenced by the spiritual values of William Wordsworth (1770-1850) who said “The world is too much with us”.  He spurned the materialistic tastes and manners of the contemporary aristocracy and through his writings wanted to revive the classical values of urbanity.     

 

Given below are his famous lines on “The Sea of Faith.”

 

“The Sea of Faith

Was once , too, at the full and round the earth’s shore

Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furl’d.

But now I only hear

Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,

Retreating, to the breath

Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear

And naked shingles of the world.

 

Ah, love, let us be true

To one another! For the world, which seems

To lie before us like a land of dreams,

So various, so beautiful, so new,

Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,

Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help, nor pains;

And we are here as on a darkling plain

Swept with confused alarms of struggle and fight,

Where ignorant armies clash by night.

                                                ******

G.R.Kanwal

28^th December 2023

                                               

 

 

 

 

 

OMAR KHAYYAM

 

OMAR KHAYYAM

Given below are two Persian quatrains of Omar Khayyam translated into English by the English poet Edward Fitzgerald (1809-83).

Khayyam was an Islamic scholar who was a distinguished poet and mathematician. He was known for his popular doctrine of skepticism, fatalism and hedonism . Of these three, hedonism was at the top. It  stood for the belief that pleasure is the most important thing in life. So: “laugh, drink and be merry”. Trust today. Don’t wait for tomorrow. As Shakespeare said: Present mirth has Present laughter.

QUATRAINS  

A book of verses underneath the bough,

A jug of wine, a loaf of bread – and Thou

Beside me singing in the wilderness –

Oh, wilderness were Paradise now!  

 

Some for the glories of this world; and some

Sigh for the Prophet’s Paradise to come:

Ah, take the Cash, and let the Credit go,

Nor heed the rumble of a distant drum!

                                    *****

G.R.Kanwal

26^th December 2023

CHRISTMAS DAY

 

 

                                                CHRISTMAS  DAY

Today (25 December 2023) is Christmas Day, the birthday of Lord Jesus Christ. People say merry Christmas to each other which means:” May your heart be light, your celebrations be joyful, and your time with loved ones, be filled with warmth and laughter. The day occurs as a part of holiday season. A good number of celebrators go away from their homes to picnic spots like hill stations.

            Former French  Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) says the nature of Christ’s existence is mysterious, I admit; but this mystery meets the wants of man.---Reject it and the world is an inexplicable riddle; believe it , and the history of our race is satisfactorily explained.

            According to German religious reformer Martin Luther (1483=1546) , in his life, Christ is an example, showing us how to live; in his death, he is a sacrifice, satisfying for our sins; in his resurrection, a conqueror; in his ascension, a king; in his intercession, a high priest.

                                                *******

G.R.Kanwal

25 December 2023

                                               

ONE EARTH, ONE FAMILY

 

          ONE EARTH, ONE FAMILY

According to Dr. S. Radhakrishnan ,the former President of India (1888-1975), we have had with us, from the beginning of history people who told us ‘One earth, one family. Goodwill to the whole of humanity.’  But he asks ‘how many of us have really become testimony to these great truths in our actual lives.’

Expressing his observation, he says that today violence is much more common than it used to be,  and questions  why it is that we are unable to adhere to the teachings which our great sages and saints have given to us.

Religion is not a thing which one can buy or get from going to a temple, church or gurdwara.  It is a thing which one can practise only if one wages incessant war on the baser instincts, which still have so much on human nature. These are the things which we have to set aside if we wish to be true followers of any great sage or religious teacher.   

                                    *******

G. R. Kanwal

24 December 2023          

 

Two Quotes on The Sun

 

                Two  Quotes on The Sun

The first beautiful quote is by  Sir David Brewster Scottish Physicist (1781-1868).

“The glorious sun, the centre and soul of our system, --the lamp that lights it, --the fire that heats it,--the magnet that guides and controls it; --the fountain of colour, which gives its azure to the sky, its verdure to the fields, its rainbow-hues to the gay world of flowers, and the purple light of love to the cheek of youth and beauty.”      

             The second quote which is a little more beautiful is by the  American clergy  Henry Ward Beecher (1818-1887). It reads as follows:

            “The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide world’s joy.—So God sits, effulgent, in heaven, not for a favoured fiew, but for the universe of life, and there is no creature so poor or low that he may not look up with childlike confidence, and say, “My father ! thou art mine.”

                                                *******

G. R. Kanwal

23 December 2023