Christmas Bells

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

Christmas Bells

I HEARD the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;
"For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men."

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote this poem on Christmas Day in 1864 while listening to the church bells in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  He had just lost his wife Frances three years earlier when her dress caught on fire and she suffered severe burns.  A month before his son Charles had signed up for the Union Army without his father's blessing only to return home gravely injured.  Although the poem is filled with negative war images ("cannons thundered in the South"), it is also filled with positive, powerful words:  "God is not dead, Nor doth He sleep:  The Wrong shall fail, The Right prevail".  Originally a professor, Longfellow retired in 1854 to write fulltime and was known for such works as "Paul Revere's Ride", "The Song of Hiawatha", and "Evangeline".  In 1872, "Christmas Bells" was put to music by English organist John Baptiste Calkin, referred to as "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" and has been recorded by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Johnny Cash among others.  The United States Post Office issued a stamp in Longfellow's honour in 1940. 



Drawing courtesy www.familychristmasonline.com.