Merry Christmas

     Christmas Bells

    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

        The 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!

 

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!

 

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."

~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow