Lyr Add: +article I Heard The Bells On Christ

Subject: +article I Heard The Bells On Christmas
From: GUEST,Dale
Date: 08 Dec 01 - 12:14 PM

While reading the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette this morning, I came across this article about one of my favorite Christmas Carols, written by ADG religion editor Nancy Caver. I felt it was too good not to share. Liland gave the two missing stanzas and some of the background a year ago. An aside ~~ favorite versions: Suzy Bogguss and Kate Smith.

"I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day"

There is little dispute that American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote the lyrics to this poignant Christmas carol. Who took it upon themselves to delete some of Longfellow's verses and rearrange the order is the mystery.

When he wrote the song, Longfellow, father of five, was recovering from years of debilitating grief over the tragic burning to death of his second wife, Frances Elizabeth (Fanny) Appleton. His agony over the Civil War and his son Charles' injury while fighting contributed to the blackness of his frame of mind.

On July 9, 1861, Fanny Longfellow had unknowingly dropped flaming sealing wax on her dress while sitting in front of an open window. When she discovered the accident, she jumped up and ran as the gauzy material of her gown caught full flame in the breezes and fire engulfed her. She died the next day, and Longfellow, too ill from the burns he sustained trying to help her, could only listen to the funeral service from an adjacent room.

He was already well known for "Evangeline," "The Song of Hiawatha" and "The Courtship of Miles Standish," but he could write nothing for months. According to a 1991 article in Harvard Magazine, Longfellow's journal entry of Dec. 25, 1862, says, " 'A merry Christmas' say the children, but that is no more for me.' "

His personal pain continued when Longfellow's son Charles, who ran away to join the Union Army, was reported injured in December 1863, and Longfellow went to try to find him and bring him home. Nothing is written in the journal about Christmas that year, but by November 1864, Longfellow had found Charles, brought him home and recorded his additional joy and hope over Abraham Lincoln's re-election.

And on Christmas Day that year, the fourth after Fanny's death, he penned the seven-stanza "Christmas Bells." In today's hymnals and carol compilations, the title is changed, two of the original stanzas are missing and the verses are rearranged.

Douglas Campbell, writing in Harvard Magazine, says, "For us, singing it 120 years later, without any historical context, the hymn's third stanza [which now begins "And in despair I bowed my head ..."] seems a personal confession of despair at the failure of the Christian message referred to in the first two stanzas."

Taken in the original context, the verse is the sixth stanza, following two on the horrors of the Civil War -- the true cause of Longfellow's despair.

But as he wrote, Longfellow was not concerned that the war was not over. Campbell writes that the poet's "moment of personal grace had left him without doubt" that the world would survive and become a sweet place once again, especially each Christmas morning.

Longfellow's original composition follows.
-- Nancy Caver

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!"

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: +article I Heard The Bells On Christ
From: GUEST,Dale
Date: 08 Dec 01 - 12:17 PM

Ahh, thread title got truncated, but I expect everyone knows what I meant!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: +article I Heard The Bells On Christ
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 08 Dec 01 - 01:17 PM

Thanks so much for posting this. It;s one of my favorite carols... I have it, finally, on a CD of Christmas songs by Harry Belefonte, re-issued after all these years..

Jerry

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: +article I Heard The Bells On Christ
From:
Date: 08 Dec 01 - 01:29 PM

Dale, I sure did. Thanks. This is extremely interesting. Will have to pass it onto our church's choir director.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: +article I Heard The Bells On Christ
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 08 Dec 01 - 02:45 PM

The omission of the verses relating to the Civil War makes the song timeless. I'll continue to sing the abbreviated text, but thanks for giving us the complete one and the article. Both will go into my song file.

Sandy

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: +article I Heard The Bells On Christ
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 08 Dec 01 - 04:02 PM

Very interesting...

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: +article I Heard The Bells On Christ
From: GUEST,Argenine
Date: 09 Dec 01 - 12:33 AM

Here is a link to an earlier discussion of Longfellow's poem and the song.

Argenine

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: +article I Heard The Bells On Christ
From: GUEST,Dale
Date: 09 Dec 01 - 03:04 PM

Well, that wasn't very long ago, was it? I DID do a search, but somehow that did not come up, only the lyrics in the DT and the comment by Liland.

Everyone should go to the thread linked by Argenine for the link (posted by Joe!) to the Douglas Campbell article cited by Nancy Caver in my original post.

I agree with Sandy, leaving those two verses out makes it a song for the ages, not just the Civil War, though it does leave the unexplained "And in despair" reference which I always wondered about. But that's not a biggie as a young friend always says.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: +article I Heard The Bells On Christ
From: Genie
Date: 09 Dec 01 - 03:56 PM

Well, maybe the song is more timeless without the Civil War verses, but in settings where I sing the song and have a chance to give a word or two of background, I leave them in, because the story adds meaning to the song, to my mind.
Especially this year, I feel the whole song, in its historical context, is most fitting for Christmas. Those two Civil War verses are not far off the mark for today!

In fact, I have toyed with the idea of changing just a few words in those two verses, to update them to the context of 9-11 and the war in Afghanistan. It wouldn't take many changes.

It's among my favorite Christmas songs, in any case.

Genie