I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day (Stanzas 1-3)

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow at Isle of Wight
{Portrait by Julia Margaret Cameron, 1868}

 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was a famous nineteenth century American poet who wrote classics like "Evangeline," "Song of Hiawatha," and others. [1]

Longfellow was married twice. His first wife, Mary, died from complications of a miscarriage. [2] Then fell in love with another young lady named Fanny. She turned him down for seven years but he finally won her over and married the love of his life. They had two boys and five girls, though the eldest daughter died when she was only sixteen months old. [1]

In 1861, Fanny died of burns from a freak accident. Henry, who had tried to smother the flames, was so badly burned on his face and hands that he couldn't even attend her funeral. Some speculate that he grew his famous beard to cover the scars. [3]

A month later he wrote to Fanny's sister:
"How I am alive after what my eyes have seen, I know not. I am at least patient, if not resigned; and thank God hourly - as I have from the beginning - for the beautiful life we led together, and that I loved her more and more to the end." [3]

By December of that year, however, his mood sounded much less positive. In his journal he wrote, "'A merry Christmas' say the children, but that is no more for me." [4]

Yet three years he wrote the first stanza of a Christmas carol with these words:

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!

Looking beyond his personal tragedy he considered the worldwide message of those bells. Those bells include Anglican churches in Canada, Catholic churches in France, Orthodox churches in Russia. Some have enough individual bells to actually play a tune. Check it out on the internet! [5] And so Longfellow's carol continues:

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!

 

[1] https://www.hwlongfellow.org/life_bowdoin.shtml
[2] https://www.hwlongfellow.org/life_cambridge.shtml
[3] https://www.hwlongfellow.org/life_elder.shtml
[4] https://www.huffpost.com/entry/i-heard-the-bells-on-chri_b_2316476
[5] Canada: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K09NvMxxBok
France: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=176NUOi5HjU
Russia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8R9R9O4hIg
Russia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBHYlIW09ls

Photo of Longfellow: https://www.moma.org/collection/works/46634