Longfellow, Handel, and Me

Very often at Christmas time a certain carol will accompany me about my life during the season. Not surprisingly I have been almost haunted by several versions of "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day." This morning I had the opportunity and blessing to be able to attend Music and the Spoken Word with my roommate Annie. After the broadcast there was a mini-concert given by the special guests Brian Stokes Mitchel and Edward Herriman. One of the highlights of the program was called the "Longfellow Section". Edward Herriman told the story behind the beautiful carol inspired by the poem. I here paraphrase:

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet and professor, was no stranger to sorrow. He had already lost his childhood sweetheart and had finally found joy again in a second marriage to Francis (Fanny) Appleton in 1843. The Longfellows soon began to grow and to fill the historic Craigie house with children's laughter. Washington had used that very study as his headquarters during the Revolutionary war.

But now it was the dark winter of 1861. Fanny and Henry were burned in a tragic fire in the library that summer. Francis died of her injuries and Henry had to fight to want to live. He still had five children to raise--alone. Tragedy had not only struck the Longfellows but also the nation. The Civil War had begun. Longfellow faced the darkest time in his life, his journals were empty or cryptic. The first Christmas after Fanny's death, Longfellow wrote, "How inexpressibly sad are all holidays." A year after the incident, he wrote, "I can make no record of these days. Better leave them wrapped in silence. Perhaps someday God will give me peace." Longfellow's journal entry for December 25th 1862 reads: "'A merry Christmas' say the children, but that is no more for me." He would soon bear more adversity. His oldest son Charles who was fighting for the Union was gravely injured and Henry found him just barely alive. With a dying son and a heart full of grief and sadness he penned the lines that would become the carol:

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 I 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.

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 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.

Dark were his thoughts. But the answer to his pain had EVERYTHING to do with Christmas. The bells still rang, the children still laughed, and God was still there.


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.”

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.

Let us all remember Longfellow. This Christmas time we have everything to joy about. Life is hard. It has been a very hard year for many in my family and friends. Yet, with much tribulation cometh the blessing. God is not dead. He know us, every hair of our heads. The Economy may be near death, but we are not. Let the spirit of the Christ fill us all with the hope that sounds in every bell at Christmas time.

One of the other touching moments for me was when the choir sang from the Messiah. As the opening chords rolled from that marvelous organ, we stood. My roommate and many others seemed confused as to why we did this. Many felt the power of the song and thought it must be that. But here is the story if you don't know. When Handel made his royal performance of The Messiah--the King was so overcome by the glory of God that he stood. And when the king stands so does everyone else. It has now become the tradition that we commemorate the mortal king paying homage to the King of Kings.

It was glorious. May we all have hope and joy. Believe.