Like we do every year, my parents took my brother and me to see \u201cA Christmas Carol\u201d on stage to get everyone into the Christmas spirit (which is no small feat at the end of November). The story is familiar and heartwarming, but the song they ended their production with struck me: \u201cI Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.\u201d Set to music a few decades later, this poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was written over Christmas of either 1863 or 1864, in the middle of the bloodiest war in American history.<\/p>\n
The carol is not cotton candy; it is a beating heart, laid bare in seven stanzas with simple language. At the second-to-last verse, I noticed dimly that I had begun to cry; by the end of the song, my face was wet with tears.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd in despair I bowed my head;
\n\u2018There is no peace on earth,\u2019 I said;
\n\u2018For hate is strong,
\nAnd mocks the song
\nOf peace on earth, good-will to men!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
It isn\u2019t quite right to call this a cynic\u2019s carol, but in this verse it is a desperate and bitter one. It\u2019s a carol from a man who has had the nature of the world uncovered before him. It\u2019s one of the only carols that still rings true to me in 2018.<\/p>\n
Like all good poets, with \u201cChristmas Bells\u201d Longfellow reached out across almost 155 years of history to take my hand.<\/p>\n
Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n A Carol for the Despairing https:\/\/t.co\/q3YK2EVhm8<\/a> via @CTMagazine<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Claudia Gerwin (@ClaudiaMaude) December 21, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n