Christmas Bells

One of the more popular Christmas carols is "Christmas Bells"  by  Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow.  

While lingering in sadness over seeing his wife burned alive by a candle
catching her clothes afire a bit over a year earlier and the death of his
son in the Federal Army, he heard the Church bells on Christmas eve and
began writing the words to "this well-known carol.

"I heard the Bells on Christmas Day, 
Their old familiar carols play.
And wild and sweet the words repeat,
Of peace on earth, goodwill to men."

Then when the midnight bells stopped ringing, Longfellow, alone with his
sorrow, angry and bitter, wrote this verse which is unlike any other in a
holiday carol:

"Then 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 upon hearing the bells on Christmas morning, he wrote one more
stanza:

"Then peeled the bells now 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."

Have you wondered what this last stanza means?  Well, two 'dark stanzas'
of the poem that weren't printed in your hymnal might explain it.  They
are:

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!

So remember, this 'hymn' was not a celebration of the birth of Jesus but
rather the cry of a heartbroken man that God would punish the South.