Ring out, ring out, ye joyous bells,
And make the hills resound,
Cast forth upon the waters dark,
Your glad exulting sound;
Tell out the tidings far and wide,
Let all the people know
Christmas is come, the time of joy,
Of rest from care and woe.

Send loud your notes, where, round the hearth,
The scattered children meet,
And wait as in the olden days,
Your earliest chime to greet;
Re-echo through the brightened room,
Blend with each loving tone.
Wake in each heart a joy as great,
As pure as childhood’s own.

With softened, distance-mellowed tone,
Fall on the listening ear
Of him whom rolling seas divide
From all he holds most dear;
Let loving voices from his home
Come mingled with your peal,
Kind wishes for the Christmas time,
Prayers offered for his weal.

Float round the sufferer’s bed with yet
A softer, holier swell
Repeat the tale of love divine,
A Savior’s advent tell;
Bid him remember Christ was born
That he might be forgiven,
Bid him look up from earthly pain,
To peace and rest in Hea­ven.

Oh bells, for me ye have a tone,
An echo of the past,
Yet breathe it not to other hearts,
A shade o’er them to cast;
How softly, musically sad!
How silver sweet and low!
A sigh from the departing year,
That sorroweth to go.

Based on Anna Louisa Walker
Leaves from the Backwoods, 1862