Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s #Christmas Bells and the #CivilWar

We were fortunate enough to visit Shepherdtown, WV for their Second Annual Civil War Christmas. Check out my previous post for details and images. However, we missed their shadow play based on Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem “Christmas Bells.”

It has long been a favorite carol of mine; what I did not know, was the story behind the poem. There is a sad melancholy attached to the piece that is impossible to miss, and yet it still ends on a happy note with that single abiding human emotion that links us all together – hope.

So, in celebration and in contemplation for this Christmas week, please find the words to Longfellow’s poem below and a beautiful video put together by SpiritandTruthArt.  

Happy Holidays from all of us on the Invalid Corps Team and wishing you always, “peace on Earth, and goodwill to men.”

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!