Tag: Christmas

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

by  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play, 
and mild 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.”

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I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” is a Christmas carol based on the 1863 poem “Christmas Bells” by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The song tells of the narrator hearing Christmas bells during the Civil War, but despairing that “hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, good will to men.” After much anguish and despondency the carol concludes with the bells ringing out with resolution that “God is not dead, nor doth He sleep” and that there will ultimately be “…peace on earth, good will to men.”

The refrain “peace on Earth, goodwill to men” is a reference to the King James Version of Luke 2:14.

In 1861, two years before writing this poem, Longfellow’s personal peace was shaken when his second wife of eighteen years, to whom he was very devoted, was fatally burned in an accidental fire.

Then in 1863, during the Civil War, Longfellow’s oldest son, Charles Appleton Longfellow, joined the Union Army without his father’s blessing. Longfellow was informed by a letter dated March 14, 1863, after Charles had left. (Calhoun, Charles C. (2004). Longfellow: A Rediscovered Life. Boston: Beacon Press. pp. 223–224. ISBN 0-8070-7039-4.)

“I have tried hard to resist the temptation of going without your leave but I cannot any longer,” he wrote. “I feel it to be my first duty to do what I can for my country and I would willingly lay down my life for it if it would be of any good.” Charles was soon appointed as a lieutenant but, in November, he was severely wounded in the Battle of Mine Run (Orange County, Virginia.) Charles eventually recovered, but his time as a soldier was finished.

Longfellow wrote the poem on Christmas Day in 1863. “Christmas Bells” was first published in February 1865, in Our Young Folks, a juvenile magazine published by Ticknor and Fields. References tothe Civil War are prevalent in some of the verses that are not commonly sung. ((Irmscher, Christoph (2006). Longfellow Redux. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. p. 293. ISBN 978-0-252-03063-5.)

It was not until 1872 that the poem is known to have been set to music. The English organist, John Baptiste Calkin, used the poem in a processional accompanied with a melody “Waltham” that he previously used as early as 1848. The Calkin version of the carol was long the standard. Less commonly, the poem has also been set to Joseph Mainzer’s 1845 composition “Mainzer.” Other melodies have been composed more recently, most notably in 1956 by Johnny Marks (arranged by Lee Kjelson and Margaret Shelley Vance).

Bing Crosby recorded the song on October 3, 1956, using Marks’s melody and verses 1, 2, 6, 7. (Calhoun, Charles C. (2004). Longfellow: A Rediscovered Life. Boston: Beacon Press. pp. 223–224. ISBN 0-8070-7039-4.)

In 2008, a contemporary Christian music group, Casting Crowns, scored their eighth No. 1 Christian hit with “I Heard the Bells”, from their album Peace on Earth. The song is not an exact replica of the original poem or carol, but an interpolation of verses 1, 6, 7 and 3 (in that order), interposed with a new chorus. (“Hot Christian Adult Contemporary.” Billboard. January 3, 2009.)

It seems to me a most appropriate Christmas Carol to sing this year in its entirety in rembrance and solidarity with other civil wars and armed conflicts around the globe.

“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.”

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