Christmas bells

In this poem, the festivities of Christmas Day are contrasted with the grim realities of life. Longfellow penned this plea for peace on Christmas Day 1863, at a time when America was convulsed by civil war, just six months after the Battle of Gettysburg.

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!

I 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!

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!’

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1824–84)