Christmas Bells : Poem

Christmas Bells

This poem was written on December 25th 1864 during the American Civil War by one of America's greatest writers, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The references to this war were removed when the poem was rearranged and set to music by John Baptiste Calkin in 1872.

I heard the bells on Christmas

DayTheir 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!"