Hark! The Herald Banjo Rings
Christmas 2008
December 19
"I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" is a hymn based on a poem written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow during the Civil War. I had originally intended to post "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear" for today, but I could not get a good recording of it to save my life. So I replaced it with another hymn written by a Unitarian. As my wife, Liddy, noted on the facebook group, this is one of the few religious Christmas hymns that does not mention Jesus. I had not been familiar with this hymn, but I quite like it, though it isn't quite a solemn on the banjo as it might be otherwise.
I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
Words: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1864.
Music: WALTHAM, John Baptiste Calkin, 1872.
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.
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 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.