December 7, 2018 Friday)
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a poem entitled, “Christmas Bells,” during the Civil War. The poem later became a Christmas Carol, “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.” Longfellow’s heart was burdened by personal tragedy as well as national when he penned this poem. He had lost his wife in a tragic fire and a year later his son was severely wounded in the war. His longing for peace is set forth in the words of this song. The original version had two additional stanzas (4 & 5) with specific references to the war. Most renditions exclude those verses.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
1863
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.”
Today is Pearl Harbor Day. December 7, 1941 was labeled by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt as “a date which will live in infamy.” Thousands died at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii that day as Japan attacked without warning. Today, 77 years later, ceremonies throughout the land honor those who died. The attacked signaled to the world that America had entered what would come to be known as World War 2. When the war ended in 1945, millions of people from all walks of life had died and cities lay in ruins in many countries. Longfellow’s words are still true today: “Hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, good will to men.”
Here we are, approaching another Christmas, remembering the advent of Christ, “the Prince of Peace,” who taught us to pray, “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
Click here to review the December 1 blog which gives the reader several versions of this song and different presentations by other artists.