Jack’s Winning Words 12/22/06
“I feel like a tiny bird with a big song to sing.” (Jerry Van Amerongen) Jerry is the cartoonist who creates Ballard Street. A clever cartoon is one way to sing a big song. Do you have a song that you’d like to sing? Think about it! One of my favorite songs: I Heard the Bells. I especially like the story that goes with it. ;-) Jack

THE STORY BEHIND, I HEARD THE BELLS ON CHRISTMAS DAY
Robert Joseph, The Christmas Book:
In some American Christmas carols, we encounter an optimistic spirit of freedom and democracy, ironically contrasted with the painful facts of history which surround the origins of the song. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote the words to this carol while America was in the midst of its bloody Civil War, on Christmas Eve, 1863. This was only six months after the Battle of Gettysberg where over 40,000 soldiers lost their lives. One of our country’s most influential writers, he taught literature for seventeen years at Harvard University. His faith in the power of God and man to join and transcend the horrors of war gave birth to this song, inspired by his hearing the ringing out of the Christmas bells. Nine years after it appeared as a poem, the tune was written by John Baptiste Calkin, an English organist and composer.
In 1956, the American lyricist and composer Johnny Marks wrote another score for this poem.
William L. Simon, ed., Reader’s Digest Merry Christmas Songbook (1981)
A mood of intense melancholy overtook poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in the years after his wife’s tragic death in a fire in 1861. The Civil War had broken out that same year, and it seemed to him that this was an additional punishment. Sitting down at his desk one day, he penned the poem "Christmas Bells. " As the bells continue to peal and peal, Longfellow recognizes that God is not dead after all, that right shall prevail, bringing peace and goodwill, as long as there is Christmas and its promise of new life. The poem has been sung to a tune written in the 1870s by an English organist, John Baptiste Calkin.

I HEARD THE BELLS ON CHRISTMAS DAY
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.
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.”
Historical Note: This hymn was writ­ten dur­ing the Amer­i­can civil war, as re­flect­ed by the sense of des­pair in the next to last stan­za. Stan­zas 4-5 speak of the bat­tle, and are usual­ly omit­ted from hymn­als:
Then from each black, accursed mouth The cannon thundered in the South, 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.