Mike Parker: The tragedy behind one Christmas song
One thing I like most about this time of year is the seasonal music that plays everywhere I go. While I enjoy songs such as “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” and “Frosty the Snowman,” I much prefer songs and carols that capture the celebration of the birth of the Lord Jesus.
But one of the most haunting hymns we hear during this season is based on a poem written to express the sorrow of personal tragedy. While this poem dates from the mid-1860s, it still appears in many hymnbooks.
The song is “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day,” adapted from the poem “Christmas Bells” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. When I was growing up, English teachers commonly taught Longfellow’s poetry. Two particular pieces most high schoolers were sure to run into were “A Psalm of Life” (1839) and “Paul Revere’s Ride” (1860).
Longfellow opens the poem with the sounds of Christmas bells pealing carols and celebrating the birth of Christ. He uses “Peace on earth, good will to men” as a refrain. But then the tone becomes darker:
“Then from each black accursed mouth / The cannon thundered in the South, / And with the sound / The voices drowned / Of peace on earth, good will to men!”
When Longfellow wrote these words, our nation was embroiled in the awful war pitting the North and South against each other – a war that claimed at least 640,000 lives of the roughly 32 million who lived in the United States at that time. If we adjusted for today’s population, the figures would be 6.4 million.
But the national tragedy was not the sole discouragement Longfellow faced. On July 9, 1861, Longfellow’s second wife, Fannie, died from burns she sustained when her dress caught on fire. Henry ran to her aid to try to extinguish the flames. He burned so badly trying to save his wife that he could not even attend her funeral. Her death haunted him.
The second personal tragedy Longfellow faced was when Charley, the oldest son of Henry and Fannie’s six children, left home at age 18 to join the Union Army to fight in the war. He left home without his father’s knowledge and permission. He explained that he felt he must do his duty to his country.
Charley saw no combat during the Battle of Chancellorsville in Virginia (April 30–May 6, 1863). He was assigned to guard the wagons. Later, Charley fell ill with “camp fever,” perhaps typhoid or typho-malarial fever, and was sent home for several months to recover. He rejoined his unit on August 15, 1863.
On December 1, Longfellow was dining alone at his home when a telegram arrived with the news that Charley had been severely wounded. The telegram said he had been shot in the face.
On November 27, 1863, during a skirmish in the Mine Run Campaign, Charley had been shot, not in the face but through the left shoulder. The bullet had traveled across his back, nicked his spine, and then exited under his right shoulder blade. Charley avoided being paralyzed by less than an inch.
After Longfellow and Charley’s younger brother Ernest met Charley on December 5, the army surgeon said his son’s wound “was very serious” and that “paralysis might ensue.” Three other surgeons gave a more favorable report that evening, suggesting recovery would require him to be “long in healing,” at least six months.
On Friday, December 25, 1863, Longfellow, now a 57-year-old widowed father of six children whose oldest son faced the possibility of being paralyzed, wrote a poem seeking to capture the complex dynamic struggling in his own heart on that Christmas Day.
Sorrow and dread made him focus on the injustice and violence that seemed to mock the truthfulness of this optimistic outlook proclaimed by the angels who announced the birth of Christ.
But at the end of the poem, Longfellow returned to his strong faith:
“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.”
Despite the personal and national tragedies that clouded his mind and heart, Longfellow still trusted that God’s will would prevail and that faith gave him hope.
May we all follow Longfellow’s example.
Mike Parker is a columnist for the Neuse News. You can reach him at mparker16@gmail.com.
Neuse News is a locally-owned small business startup in downtown Kinston. Our goal is to provide free, hyper-local news to Lenoir, Greene and Jones counties. The kind of news our grandparents read in a format fit for today's times.
We provide this by having supportive advertisers and we encourage you to click on their ads, shop with them, and eat with them. Every bit of financial support is important to help us sustain free, hyper-local news.
Please consider supporting Neuse News with as little as $5 one-time or via a monthly option. Every little bit helps us, help you.
