The Bells of Christmas Day
Several years after the tragic death of his wife, and during the midst of the civil war in which his oldest son was injured, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow sat down at his desk on Christmas Day, 1864. He wrote this poem:
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 today,
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.”
Longfellow knew suffering. After his wife’s death he said he was “inwardly bleeding to death.” At times he questioned his continued sanity. I imagine him sitting at his desk that day, hearing the bells and looking at the brokenness around him.
For a new interpretation of the poem and familiar Christmas Carol, look up Casting Crowns’ “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.” For the New Testament scripture that Longfellow was referencing, read Luke 2.
Faith and Sight 