“Christmas Bells” was first published in 1865 and is probably one of Longfellow’s best-known poems today. It was set to music early on and became part of the Christmas carol canon. The words have been paired with both traditional melodies and new compositions in styles ranging from sacred to pop.
Stanzas 4 and 5 are usually left out of the carol version, but evoke the context of sorrow in which the poem was written, and the experience of its audience when it was first published in February 1865 during the American Civil War. Both the poem and carol end with an uplifting resolution of peace on earth, heard in the ringing of the bells.
Christmas Bells by 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.”
Another carol referring to bells is the Carol of the Bells which is based on a Ukranian folk chant. John Williams arranged Carol of the bells for the soundtrack fo the Christmas Classic film Home Alone. Carol of the Bells