Longfellow's Christmas Bells

LITERATURE OUT LOUD

Click here for a complete INDEX

 

 

Christmas Bells

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 

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."

 

LITERATURE OUT LOUD -- see and hear great literature

800+ audio versions of poems, short stories, novels
and all of Shakespeare's Sonnets -- over 30,000 downloads

literatureoutloud.com

 

Plodder's Mile -- an action ebook by Dane Allred

click here -- only $4.99!!

 

Quick Quotations by Dane Allred

a public speaking handbook with more than 2000 quotes

click here -- only $9.99 !!