One of my favorite Christmas Carols is “I
Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”. With its clear, straight forward
lyrics and melody it spoke movingly peace on Earth and goodwill toward man.
Yet there was that one stanza that always kind of jarred me.
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!”
Such a discordant note against the otherwise stirring and hopeful lyrics sent
me to researching the song’s history.
The words for ‘I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day’ come from the poem
‘Christmas Bells’ written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. One of America’s
finest and best loved poets, Longfellow (1807-1882) penned such famous works as
Paul Revere’s Ride and The Song of Hiawatha.
Longfellow wrote ‘Christmas Bells’ on Christmas Day, 1864. The American
Civil War still raged, though hope loomed on the horizon with Union advances
and the re-election of Abraham Lincoln. Two stanzas eventually left out
when John Baptiste Calkin (1827-1905) wrote the tune in 1872 spoke of
‘thundering cannons drowning out carols’, and ‘ a continent made
forlorn’. The national juxtaposition of hope and uncertainty was even more
acute for Longfellow.
On July 9th, 1861, just three months after the bombardment of Fort Sumter
opened the Civil War, the Longfellow family suffered a very personal
tragedy. An oppressive heat wave in Massachusetts prompted Longfellow’s
wife, Fanny, to trim the heavy locks of their seven year old daughter, Edith.
Fanny decided to preserve little Edie’s curls. As she heated wax to seal
the envelop, hot drops fell unseen onto her dress. A sudden breeze set
the smoldering dress afire. In an effort to protect her young daughters
from the flames, Fanny rushed into Longfellow’s study. Longfellow first
tried to extinguish the flames with a rug, and when that failed he threw his
body onto his wife, severely burning his face, arms and hands. Fanny
Longfellow died the next morning.
Frances Appleton was the great love of Longfellow’s life. Their courtship
lasted seven years. She was the subject of the sonnet, “The Evening
Star,” which he wrote in October, 1845. (“O my beloved, my sweet Hesperus!
My morning and my evening star of love!”). Longfellow’s grief and injuries
were so great he was unable to attend her funeral.
In his journal that first Christmas after his wife’s death Longfellow wrote:
“How inexpressibly sad are all holidays.” His journal states:
“I can make no record of these days. Better leave them wrapped in silence.
Perhaps someday God will give me peace.”, on the anniversary of Fanny’s
death. For Christmas, 1862, Longfellow writes: “‘A merry Christmas’
say the children, but that is no more for me.”
In late 1863 Longfellow received word that his eldest son, Lieutenant Charles
Longfellow, had been severely wounded and crippled in battle. Longfellow
made no journal entry for Christmas, 1863.
On Christmas Day, 1864, Longfellow wrote ‘Christmas Bells’. The sound of
the pealing bells penetrates the despair Longfellow has been experiencing,
filling him with a sense of hope that: “God is not
dead, nor doth He sleep; The wrong shall fail, the right prevail …”
Here is ‘Christmas Bells’ with the stanzas deleted when John Baptiste Calkin
set the words to music in 1872.
“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!”
Four months later the Civil War ended. The nation began, and Longfellow
continued, the long, difficult road to recovery. The grief over Fanny’s
death lessened, but never left Longfellow entirely. Eighteen years after
her death he penned the sonnet, “The Cross of Snow”, where he wrote: Such is
the cross I wear upon my breast\These eighteen years, through all the changing
scenes\And seasons, changeless since the day she died.
On Christmas Day, in 1864, the sound of the bells reached through Longfellow’s
grief and despair to remind him what Christmas is all about: Hope. Hope
that God is neither dead nor asleep. Hope that Right will prevail over
Wrong. Hope that peace and good-will cover the earth.
The lesson of ‘The Christmas Bells’ is about coming to understand that though
it may not seem so at times, hope awaits, patiently, sometimes unseen, for
those who faithfully persevere.
So listen for the bells. They’re ringing. They’re always ringing,
just waiting for us to listen. And have hope.
William G. Jennings HubPages
Photo by Chris Barbalis @cbarbalis