Harlem Library

This week I would like to reprint a well-loved poem written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. On Christmas Day, 1863, Longfellow was a widower and father of six. His oldest son had been paralyzed fighting for the Union in the Civil War. As Longfellow heard the bells that December day he observed a world of injustice and violence. He wrote the poem with optimism it would lead to a confident hope even in the midst of bleak despair.

Christmas Bells

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,

1807 - 1882

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.”