The Healing Journey

December 25, 2024

Two years after his wife was fatally burned when her dress caught fire, poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s oldest son Charles was seriously wounded in the Battle of New Hope Church by a Confederate bullet. He had joined the Union Army without telling his father, who learned only after receiving a letter that read, “I have tried hard to resist the temptation of going without your leave, but I cannot any longer. I feel it to be my first duty to do what I can for my country, and I would willingly lay down my life for it if it would be of any good.”

The poet’s life had fallen apart, and he was tormented by grief and despair on Christmas morning in 1863 when he heard the church bells pealing. Then, he sat down to write the poem “Christmas Bells,” which says, “Hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on Earth, goodwill to men.” The poem, which was published in 1865, became the basis for the carol, “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.” Its message is as relevant today as it was at the height of the Civil War.

Hear the carol based on Longfellow’s poem.

The following are the original words of Longfellow’s poem:

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
and mild 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.”

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