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 Longfellow