Ring Out the New

Past a strenuous three score and ten

The truth had better be told:

Ring out the new, ring in the old.

Let the so-glittering now be

Set aside for the unlettered then,

Let once again nothing be bought,

And nothing whatsoever be sold.

Let what is of greatest worth,

All that which have we must—

Seamless being, seamless health—

Ooze from a homely handful of dust.

As you read these backward thoughts,

Call them not defeated ones;

When forging on is a crass pursuit,

There is merit in what backward runs.

Badri Raina