Today is Tuesday, December 10th, 2013; Karen's Korner #2712
Among many things our pastor mentioned in our church sermon on Sunday, he told about the song "Christmas Bells" and how Henry Wadsworth Longfellow happened to write it. The era was during the Civil War. He had recently lost his wife, Frances, in an accidental fire; not long after his oldest son, Charles, joined the Union cause, against his father's wishes. Only a few months later, the older Longfellow learned that his son had been wounded in the Battle of New Hope Church in Virginia during the Mine Run Campaign; his wounds included a lengthy recovery.
Thus the poem penned on Christmas Cay in 1863, and first published in February 1865:
"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 rest
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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