The Bells

“I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” is a Christmas carol based on the 1863 poem “Christmas Bells” by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The poem tells of him hearing Christmas bells during the Civil War, but despairing that “hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, good will to men”. After much anguish and despondency, the poem concludes with the bells ringing out with resolution that “God is not dead, nor doth He sleep” and that there will ultimately be “peace on earth, good will to men”. This version is based on the melody “Waltham” composed by English organist, John Baptiste Calkin, that he previously used as early as 1848. The Calkin version of the carol was long the standard, and later supplanted by the one composed by Johnny Marks in 1956 and recorded by Bing Crosby. Composed in 3/4 rather than the standard common time, The Bells conveys the message as intended in Wadsworth’s poem, with a hint at the darkness of his times, followed by the overpowering optimism inherent in the final stanza: 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.”