"Bells on Christmas Day" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was filled with sorrow at the tragic death of his wife in a fire in 1861. The Civil War broke out the same year, and it seemed this was an additional punishment. Two years later, Longfellow was again saddened to learn that his own son had been seriously wounded in the Army of the Potomac.

Sitting down to his desk, one Christmas Day, he heard the church bells ringing. It was in this setting that Longfellow wrote these lines:

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!"