I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1864

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Themes

Finding Hope in Despair

For those who read “Christmas Bells” as an outpouring of Longfellow’s personal emotions, its conclusion offers similarities to an idea that he articulated in a much earlier poem about grief called “The Light of Stars” (1839). In that poem’s concluding lines (See: Further Reading & Resources), the speaker discusses how “sublime a thing it is / to suffer and be strong” (“The Light of Stars,” Lines 35-36). “Christmas Bells” discusses how, after multiple crises, the speaker finds determination to believe that “God is not dead, nor doth He sleep” (Line 32).

Multiple crises beset Longfellow in the early 1860s, but the first and most heartbreaking was the death of his beloved wife Fanny by fire. In letters, Longfellow remarked on the horror of the moment in which he tried to tamp out the flames which had consumed Fanny’s dress, causing her fatal burns. As the holidays of early 1860s rolled around, he could hardly enjoy them, noting, “How inexpressibly sad are all holidays!” (Meyer, Don. “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.” Huffington Post, 2013). This sense of doom was not lightened by the war at hand. Longfellow, a lifelong lover of American democracy, as well as an abolitionist, was disturbed by the fractures in the United States caused by the institution of slavery. He notes in “Christmas Bells” how the “hearth-stones of a continent” (Line 22) were destroyed by cannon fire despite several “households born / [of] peace on earth” (Lines 24-25). Finally, he was overwhelmed by his son’s enlistment into the Union army and his subsequent serious injury, which only occurred by the battle that was going on.

Amid all these difficulties, there is sympathy for how Longfellow’s speaker notes that “in despair, I bowed my head” (Line 26). Knowing about Longfellow’s grief, it makes sense that the poem’s speaker feels temporarily abandoned by God and mocked for thinking of “peace on earth, good-will to men” (Line 30). However, the speaker’s deeper Christian beliefs rise to the fore, as the speaker imagines the bells saying, “God is not dead nor doth He sleep” (Line 32). Here, the carols’ words serve as a guiding star to lead the speaker out of darkness. He must believe he will “prevail” (Line 34) by having “good-will to men” (Line 35) in his heart. By believing in righteous kindness, Longfellow can rectify his own feelings of despair and isolation through the poem. While this cannot correct losses, nor dim the pain, it does help Longfellow move forward from grief toward hope for the future.

The Abolitionist Message

Prior to the Civil War, abolitionists argued that the institution of slavery must be put to an end due to moral grounds that it was un-Christian and stained democratic values laid out in the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. Longfellow was an abolitionist, and “Christmas Bells” may reflect some of his feelings about the Civil War. In the poem, the phrase “peace on earth, good-will to men” is used as a refrain to end each stanza, appearing seven times (in Lines 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, and 35). While some critics have mentioned that this repetition is tedious, in truth, it heightens the speaker’s preference for the Union side of the war against those who wanted to continue practices of slavery.

Longfellow’s speaker deliberately casts the refrain in a different light each time it is used. In its first three uses, the words of the carols “repeat / Of peace on earth, good-will to men” (Line 5) and this song is “unbroken” (Line 9), and “a chant sublime” (Line 14). These lines suggest that this is a sentiment to which one should aspire. Since the refrain alludes to the Bible’s Luke 2:14, the speaker is deliberately identifying the sentiment with faithful Christianity; it is an ideal for which one should reach.

The speaker makes clear that this value is under threat, however, and aligns that threat with pro-slavery ideology. The Christian carols are “drowned” (Line 19) of their sentiment by the harsh cannon fire “in the South” (Line 17). Despite many Americans being “born” (Line 24) in “households” (Line 24) that aspire to the Christianity expressed in the refrain, there is now a fight that “mocks” (Line 29) that ideal with “hate [that’s] strong” (Line 28). The speaker does not approve of this.

Further, the fact that Americans have turned against each other causes the speaker to “in despair [bow] my head” (Line 26). One bows one’s head when one prays and here, it is as if the speaker is asking for some divine intercession. In answer, “pealed the bells more loud and deep” (Line 31). That God agrees with the speaker is indicated by the line, “God is not dead, nor doth He sleep” (Line 32). The speaker is assured the “Right [will] prevail” (Line 34). Significantly, the refrain is altered in the last line, “of peace” is replaced with “with peace” (Line 35, emphasis added). Here, the simple wording shift emphasizes that the speaker intimates that the correct side will win the conflict because of their deep belief in the tenent of “peace on earth, good-will to men” (Line 35). This is an echo of not just Christian sentiment but the idea of equality for all men as set forth by the Declaration of Independence, the document cherished by abolitionists in the North.

Nostalgia and Resurrection

The trajectory of “Christmas Bells” leads the speaker from a willful naïveté into a strong resolve regarding the present. During times of great crisis—personal or national—we struggle to make sense of horrible acts, and from that position, often long for a simpler time when life seemed less difficult. This is true for the speaker of “Christmas Bells.” When they realize this dream isn’t viable, they turn to despair, but then discover a different alternative.

At first, the speaker, who is a Northerner reflecting on the country’s engagement in Civil War, indulges in listening to the “bells on Christmas day” (Line 1) as an act of nostalgia. These “wild and sweet” (Line 3) tunes are “old, familiar” (Line 2) and the speaker finds comfort in their message. Yet, the speaker’s position is somewhat naïve as he suggests that the idea of “peace on earth, good-will to men” (Line 5) is an “unbroken song” (Line 9). It is nice to believe this, but the speaker must reckon with the idea that the Civil War, with its moral complexity, has “rent” (Line 21) the foundations of this very ideal. The truth is that cannon fire has broken and “drowned” (Line 19) out the Christian ideals the speaker assumed were solid.

Given to bifurcations, the speaker then swings the other way. If things are broken, they doubt that they can be mended, “For hate is strong / And mocks the song” (Lines 28-29). The nostalgic peace the speaker once cherished is now portrayed as broken, mocked, and drowned out. No wonder he feels that “[t]here is no peace on earth” (Line 27) and lowers his head in defeat.

However, the speaker is urged—by faith and hope—to see peace as neither lost nor dead. Instead, it is something for which to fight. In this epiphany, or a flash of insight, they realize that “God is not dead” (Line 22). In other words, God is not broken, mocked, or drowned out. “Nor doth He sleep” (Line 22) but is, instead, constantly resurrected, as is “peace on earth” (Line 35). A call to arms is issued, “The Wrong shall fail / The Right prevail / [w]ith peace on earth, good-will to men” (Line 33-35). In this way, the speaker advocates to not keep peace as a dead thing of the past, but instead show that it is in a constant state of revival.