Christmas Bells

 Please be sure to watch and listen to the You Tube video also posted here today entitled, "I heard the bells on Christmas Day", sung by Jars of Clay.

The song, "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day", is from the Poem seen below by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow written in 1864.  The poem was rearranged and set to music in 1872 by John Baptiste Caulkin.  The original poem, "Christmas Bells",  was written by Longfellow in response to several tragedies that had occurred in his life over the span of several years.

His wife, Fanny,  died in an accident in their home on July 10, 1861. She was working with sealing wax and  unknowingly spilled several drops onto her dress.  A breeze came through the window and ignited the burning wax into flames which quickly engulfed her.  Henry tried to save her by using a rug but when that didn't work, he wrapped himself around her trying to put out the flames.  She died the next day; he himself was bed ridden with severe burns to his hands, arms, and face.

For several years he was filled with grief and that first Christmas after Fanny's death he stated, "How inexpressibly sad are all holidays." A year later he wrote, "I can make no record of these days. Better leave them wrapped in silence. Perhaps someday God will give me peace."  Since the United States Civil War started in 1861, Longfellow received more bad news nearly a year later that his oldest son, Charles, who was a lieutenant in the Army of the Potomac, had been severely wounded in Washington, D.C.  He rushed down to bring him home and after a lengthy search finally found Charles barely alive.  Charles did not die that Christmas, but lived.  It was Christmas of 1864 that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow penned the words of the poem, "Christmas Bells" after coming out of an extremely difficult period in his life.  President Lincoln had been reelected and there was hope that the war would end soon.  Longfellow's final stanza, "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!'" was loudly proclaiming that even when things are difficult and hope seems lost, God is still sovereign and He shall be victorious!

"Christmas Bells"

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(The original poem, complete with all seven stanzas)

"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!"

Photo courtesy of Photobucket.com.