Christmas is a time for hopefulness
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow famously penned such well-known poems as “Paul Revere’s Ride” and “The Song of Hiawatha.” He also wrote, with less fanfare, a poem on Christmas Day 1863, the words of which have proven more popular than any other of his works.
Simply titled “Christmas Bells,” the poem later provided the lyrics for the familiar carol “I Hear the Bells on Christmas Day.” And, though the carol has become, over the past century and a half, a holiday staple, few of us actually know its poignant back story.
It was, in fact, written by Longfellow during a time of deep despair. He had learned that his first-born son, Charles, a lieutenant in the Union Army during the Civil War, was severely wounded in the Battle of New Hope Church in Paulding County, Ga.
That heartbreaking news arrived while the poet was still grieving the loss of his beloved wife, Fanny, who died from burns sustained in a fire in their Cambridge, Mass., home.
Longfellow’s enduring grief over the twin tragedies — as well as his profound sorrow over the deaths of so many of America’s sons during the deadliest war in this nation’s history — was reflected in the penultimate stanza of “Christmas Bells”:
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!
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/longfellow-739355-fanfare-song.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
