When William Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) wrote this poem, the country was fighting the Civil War, his beloved wife Fanny had died in an accidental fire and his son Charles was recovering from crippling war wound.
The first Christmas after Fanny’s death, Longfellow wrote, “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.”
The poem was written on Christmas Day in 1863, the second Christmas after Fanny died, and a month after Charles was wounded. The country remained at war with no end in sight. Peace seemed very far away.
A lot, it seems, like today.
Longfellow’s Christmas bells loudly proclaimed, “God is not dead.” Even more, the bells announced, “Nor doth He sleep.” God’s Truth, Power, and Justice are affirmed, when Longfellow wrote: “The wrong shall fail, the right prevail.” The message that the Living God is a God of Peace is proclaimed in the close of the carol: “Of peace on Earth, good-will to men.”
The very words that the Angels proclaimed so many years ago.
The original poem contained seven stanzas. Two stanzas, with references to the Civil War, were later omitted. Yet the poem affirms that the God of Peace is still with us, no matter what is happening, no matter what our grief. And right will prevail.
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!
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.”
Hear my favorite rendition of this song here.