“Christmas Bells” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

You’ve probably heard the Christmas carol “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day,” at some point (maybe even this Christmas season), but did you know that it was inspired by a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow? The poet penned “Christmas Bells” in 1863, and eventually it got altered and became the musical piece it is today. “Christmas Bells” follows the poem’s narrator and his thoughts as he continues to hear bells ringing around him.

Initially, the narrator takes comfort in hearing the bells:

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! (1-5)

The sounds are “old” and “familiar” (2) as well as “sweet” (3), and they carry a cheery message: that of good wishes to all and of the world being peaceful. These upbeat ideas are certainly welcome on Christmas Day, but the narrator gradually begins to feel a little cynical about the bells. He first thinks about how bells must be going off everywhere, how “the belfries of all Christendom” (7) must be playing “the unbroken song” (9). The message is incredibly widespread; the “chant sublime” (14) is probably being heard by millions on this day, and this is precisely what the narrator ponders.

He starts to think of the bells playing where the Civil War is being fought, and it saddens him: “The cannon thundered in the South,/And with the sound/The carols drowned” (17-19). Christmas Day is in fact not a happy day for the families of those soldiers who lost their lives. The war has “made forlorn/The households born/Of peace on earth, good-will to men!” (23-25).

The narrator thus begins to feel that the bells’ message is wrong:

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!” (26-30)

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

He loses all hope and feelings of happiness as he realizes that while a war rages on, there cannot be peace; the hatred of both sides makes a fool of the silly little song. These feelings of despair and hopelessness are common to people who are grieving, and they’re perfectly natural. But as the narrator of the poem comes to find out, these feelings don’t last forever.

As if in response to the narrator’s sorrowful thoughts, the bells seem to get louder:

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!” (31-35)

Though “Wrong” (33) and “Right” (34) refer to the sides in the war, this can be applied to the principle that good triumphs over evil. There will be pain and suffering along the way, but in the end, good always wins. Though a death can make us feel like this isn’t true, eventually this pessimism fades. And Christmas, whether you celebrate it or not, is a time to be merry and to cherish our memories, not begrudge them.

Related Reading:

• More famous Christmas poems
• “Christmas Traditions Around the World” (SevenPonds)