Scripture Verse

Suddenly there was with the angel a great company of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, good will toward men. Luke 2:13–14

Introduction

portrait
Henry W. Longfellow
(1807–1882)

Words: Hen­ry W. Long­fel­low, wri­tten Christ­mas Day, 1863. First pub­lished in the ju­ve­nile ma­ga­zine Our Young Folks (Tick­nor & Fields, Feb­ru­ary 1865).

Music: Wal­tham (Cal­kin) John B. Cal­kin, 1872 (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tune:

If you know where to get a good pho­to of Cal­kin (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

Lyrics

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 th’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.

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.

illustration
Christmas Bells
Edwin H. Blashfield, 1892

The vers­es be­low, usu­al­ly omit­ted in mo­dern hym­nals, re­flect the words’ ori­gin dur­ing the Am­eri­can ci­vil war:

Then from each black, ac­curs­èd 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.