Romance Weekly: Favorite Holiday Song

This week Xio Axelrod of Romance Writers’ Weekly, wanted to know our favorite holiday songs.

Have you come from S. C. Mitchell’s blog at http://scmitchell.wordpress.com/? If not, go back to it. Not only will he reveal his favorite holiday song, but you can see the book he released this week,

  

My favorite Christmas song is “I Heard The Bells on Christmas Day.” This moving song was written before the end of the Civil War by Henry W. Longfellow. A series of family tragedies inspired this sombre holiday carol. His wife Fanny died in the arms of her husband despite his frantic attempts to save her. Her death devastated him. The next year, his son died of a gunshot wound in battle. With his family in shambles, Christmas was not a happy time for him.

Deep emotions run through each verse, reminding me that Christmas can be a day of heartbreak and loneliness for some and peace and joy for others.

I HEARD THE BELLS ON CHRISTMAS DAY

By Henry W. Longfellow, 1864.

 

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.”

 

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.

 

Head over to Carrie Elks’ page to see what song she chose. Probably more cheerful than mine!  http://carrieelks.com/blog/ And check the release she has coming out on Christmas Day!