Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was one of America’s greatest poets. Longfellow was born on February 27, 1807 and experienced quite a bit of tragedy. His first wife, Mary Potter, died suddenly while Longfellow was overseas. After a long and difficult courtship, he married Frances Appleton in 1843 and the couple had six children. In 1861, while sealing envelopes with hot wax, a flame caught Frances’ clothes on fire and she was burned beyond recovery; Longfellow fell into a deep depression after this event and threw himself into his work. On December 1, 1863, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow received a telegram that his eldest son Charley had been severely wounded four days earlier in the Civil War. Longfellow found himself staring down another Christmas season as a widower, with five children dependent on him and now one child on the brink of death. Outside, he heard the Christmas bells ringing, and in the midst of his pain and hope he penned this poem¹. Here is a modern rendition 🙂

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.”

¹biblestudytools.com/bible-study/topical-studies/finding-praise-through-pain-in-i-heard-the-bells-on-christmas-day.html