Hope (Tūmanako) bell
- Height mm
- Width 2273 mm
- Weight 7904 kg
- Note F#
Hope (Tūmanako)
O weep, child, weep, o weep away the stain,
Lost innocence who wished your lover dead,
Weep for the lives your wishes never led.
O law drummed out by hearts against the still
Long winter of our intellectual will.
That what has been may never be again.
- Auden, Hymn to St. Cecilia
To the Glory of God
This bell is dedicated in commemoration of
the fiftieth anniversary of the end
of World War Two.
Anno Domini 1995.
In 1995 four new bass bells were ordered for the National War Memorial Carillon to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. Their installation provided new notes for the instrument and finally completed the Carillon, making it the third largest in the world.
This bell, 'Hope Tūmanako', is inscribed with lines from a poem by W.H. Auden, ‘Hymn to St. Cecilia’, which was written during the Second World War to become a choral piece by Benjamin Britten, with whom Auden had collaborated a number of times. St Cecilia is the patron saint of music.
This bell was unveiled by Governor-General Dame Catherine Tizard in February 1996, at the same time as 'Remembrance (Whakamaharatanga)'.