The fifteenth day before Christmas

In the singing of Christmas carols, verses often get omitted.  For example, the last two verses of "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing": even if they are sung, the first part of 3 and the second half of 4 usually get squished together to make one verse.  Not that you can blame the editor!  The second half of 3 is remarkably unmusical.  Power/restore and join/thine? Wesley, what were you thinking?

Come, Desire of nations, come,
Fix in us Thy humble home;
Rise, the woman’s conqu’ring Seed,
Bruise in us the serpent’s head.
Now display Thy saving power,
Ruined nature now restore;
Now in mystic union join
Thine to ours, and ours to Thine.

Adam’s likeness, Lord, efface,
Stamp Thine image in its place:
Second Adam from above,
Reinstate us in Thy love.
Let us Thee, though lost, regain,
Thee, the Life, the inner man:
O, to all Thyself impart,
Formed in each believing heart.

One of my favorite carols, "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day," is one of these truncated carols, but for a good reason.  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote the carol shortly after the death of his wife.  His son had just been shot while fighting in the Civil War.  Verses 1, 2, 3, 6, and 7 are the ones you will typically hear or find printed in modern hymnals.  Verses 4 and 5—especially four—are a little too historical to make much sense.

I love both stanzas anyway.  Verse 6 (which is usually verse 4) always feels sudden to me.  The speaker is happy, he likes the bells, then BAM! he's so depressed.  The middle stanzas explain it all, and Longfellow's sadness at the war in his nation and the effect it's had on his family.  The broken "hearth-stones of a continent" is a great image.

I understand, however, that singing about cannons and the war between the states doesn't put anyone in the Christmas spirit.

Here's Longfellow's text:

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."

You would think that if anyone were willing to sing about the South on a Christmas album, it would be Johnny Cash, but you would be wrong.  Here's his wacky, completely inappropriate, shuffle-swing version of the carol.  What happened to the despair?