Poem for a Tuesday — “Christmas Bells” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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.”
in A Christmas Treasury of Yuletide Stories and Poems, ed. James Charlton and Barbara Gilson (New York: Guild America Books, 1976), pp. 302-303.
Luke 2:14
“Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was the most popular poet of his day. Born in Portland in 1807, his grandfather was the congressman and Revolutionary War hero General Peleg Wadsworth. His father Stephen Longfellow was a lawyer and founder of Bowdoin College, where Henry studied, met his lifelong friend Nathaniel Hawthorn, and graduated in 1825. Henry taught at Bowdoin and later at Harvard College. He was such an admired figure during his life that his seventieth birthday in 1877 was celebrated across the nation with parades, speeches, and the reading of his poetry. “Christmas Bells,” written in 1863, reflects Longfellow’s grief over the Civil War and the death of his wife Frances “Fanny” Appleton.
Joann White 