Wednesday of the 1st Week in Advent: A not-to-often sung Carol of Christmas that is filled with emotion is "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day". The full text of the song is seldom heard. The poem was written by American's most famous poet (in my opinion), 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 !"
The song resonates with strong emotions. The Longfellow family had emigrated to America from England in the 1670's and his family were well-established in New England. Henry W. Longfellow was a brilliant man. He was reading classical stories and writing poems by the age of 6. He graduated from college at 19, was a professor and married young, and was of such fame that Harvard successfully hired him to be a professor there. He had it all, until a year after moving to Harvard, his wife suddenly fell sick and died. Seven years later he married again and after 5 children over several years, Longfellow once again suffered tragedy when his wife was killed in a house fire. It was 1861 and the Civil War had begun.
His oldest son, Charles, slipped away from home in early 1863, went south to Washington D.C. and joined up with the Massachusetts militia to fight the south. A few months later Longfellow received a telegram that his son was badly wounded. He brought him home to recover from his wounds.
Longfellow had written many poems before this one; but after his son was badly wounded, Longfellow heard the church bells ringing on Christmas day, 1863. Just a little over a month from President Lincoln's address at Gettysburg and filled with emotion from his losses and son's injuries, Longfellow sat down to pen this poem.
Longfellow saw that his faith in God was the antidote to hopelessness and despair. The last verse rings with hope and trust that God ultimately will prevail over human injustice.
The poem was first put to music in 1972 and has lived on as a testimony of God's Sovereign work in human history.
My favorite rendition is still Bing Crosby's.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q5LkxG-36w
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