Lyric Poem · Peace
Christmas Bells
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · 1863
1"I heard the bells on Christmas Day
2Their old familiar carols play,
3And wild and sweet
4The words repeat
5Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
6And thought how, as the day had come,
7The belfries of all Christendom
8Had rolled along
9The unbroken song
10Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
11Till, ringing, singing on its way,
12The world revolved from night to day,
13A voice, a chime
14A chant sublime
15Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
16Then from each black accursed mouth
17The cannon thundered in the South,
18And with the sound
19The carols drowned
20Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
21It was as if an earthquake rent
22The hearth-stones of a continent,
23And made forlorn
24The households born
25Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
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“Christmas Bells” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow — quilloak.com/poems/christmas-bells
Quick facts
- Poem
- Christmas Bells
- Poet
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Published
- 1863
- Length
- 35 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem, Rhyming Poems
- Themes
- Peace, Hope, Winter
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 35 lines · 7 quintains
- Refrain
- “Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”Repeated lines act as the poem's hinge or drumbeat.
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow1807–1882
- Source record
- PoetryDBChristmas Bells by henry-wadsworth-longfellow, PoetryDB transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- 1863
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 da47aa425d6497a7…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.