Longfellow, I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day; Leontovych, Ukrainian Carol of the Bells; Longfellow, The Three Kings

Self ^ | 12/24/2022 | Charles O'Connell

[CharlesOConnell]

Carol of the Bells https://www.sing-prayer.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/CarolOfTheBells.mp3

Longfellow wrote "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" during the Civil War, his son having been wounded; the most dramatic moment is a reference to canons in the south. The composer of the Ukrainian Carol of the bells, Mykola Leontovych, a simple, provincial musician, was killed by the Soviet secret police, after he had given hospitality to the assassin and had shared his bedroom for the night. Longfellow's "The Three Kings" mentions "the myrrh for the body's burying" among the Magi's gifts.

Christmas Bells have a sentimental legacy. But Bells are also a sign of danger and warning, as Pete Seeger wrote in "If I Had a Hammer", a Communist song. John Donne wrote about Bells' fateful legacy, in "No man is an island", "never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee."

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

https://www.sing-prayer.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/I-HeardThe-Bells-On-Christmas-Day.mp3

Christmas Bells

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807-1882	John Baptiste Calkin 1827-1905
1. 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!	2. & 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!
3. 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!	4. 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!
5. 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!	6. 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!"
7. Then pealed the bells more loud & deep: "God is not dead, nor doth He sleep; The Wrong shall fail, The Right prevail, With peace on earth, good-will to men."

God is not dead;
He isn't even tired.

Bells have tolled for the birth of Jesus, in relation to His crucifixion, by the same token that the myrrh, crystalline resin, cited in Matthew 2:11, is a preservative for burial: it was like bringing a coffin to a Christening.

Jesus came in poverty, with the intention of suffering death, to offer mercy and salvation. He had to suffer the worst that mankind had experienced, the legacy of the pyramids of skulls left by Tamerlane, the torture of the innocents mentioned by Dostoevsky in "The Brothers Karamazov":

"By the way, a Bulgarian I met lately in Moscow," Ivan went on, seeming not to hear his brother's words, "told me about the crimes committed by Turks and Circassians in all parts of Bulgaria through fear of a general rising of the Slavs. They burn villages, murder, outrage women and children, they nail their prisoners by the ears to the fences, leave them so till morning, and in the morning they hang them- all sorts of things you can't imagine. People talk sometimes of bestial cruelty, but that's a great injustice and insult to the beasts; a beast can never be so cruel as a man, so artistically cruel. The tiger only tears and gnaws, that's all he can do. He would never think of nailing people by the ears, even if he were able to do it. These Turks took a pleasure in torturing children, -too; cutting the unborn child from the mothers womb, and tossing babies up in the air and catching them on the points of their bayonets before their mothers' eyes. Doing it before the mothers' eyes was what gave zest to the amusement. Here is another scene that I thought very interesting. Imagine a trembling mother with her baby in her arms, a circle of invading Turks around her. They've planned a diversion: they pet the baby, laugh to make it laugh. They succeed, the baby laughs. At that moment a Turk points a pistol four inches from the baby's face. The baby laughs with glee, holds out its little hands to the pistol, and he pulls the trigger in the baby's face and blows out its brains. Artistic, wasn't it? By the way, Turks are particularly fond of sweet things, they say."

Jesus is hated by the world, in part because He asks us to suffer with him: He who does not take up his cross is unworthy of Me." The world, lacking enlightenment by the Light Who came into the world, sees all suffering as evil. Therefore, Christianity will be the object of hate as the world becomes one, against God, in its new Tower of Babel.

The Three Kings http://www.sing-prayer.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/LongfellowThreeKings-StainerGoldenCarol_01-11-20.mp3

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow	Sir John Stainer
1) Three Kings came riding from far away, Melchior and Gaspar and Baltasar; Three Wise Men out of the East were they, And they travelled by night and they slept by day, For their guide was a beautiful, wonderful star.	2) The star was so beautiful, large and clear, That all the other stars of the sky Became a white mist in the atmosphere, And by this they knew that the coming was near Of the Prince foretold in the prophecy.
3) Three caskets they bore on their saddle-bows, Three caskets of gold with golden keys; Their robes were of crimson silk with rows Of bells, pomegranates and furbelows, Their turbans like blossoming almond-trees.	4) And so the Three Kings rode into the West, Through the dusk of the night, over hill & dell, & sometimes they nodded with beard on breast, And sometimes talked, as they paused to rest, With the people they met at some wayside well.
5) “Of the child that is born,” said Baltasar, “Good people, I pray you, tell us the news; For we in the East have seen his star, And have ridden fast, and have ridden far, To find and worship the King of the Jews.”	6) And the people answered, “You ask in vain; We know of no King but Herod the Great!” They thought the Wise Men were men insane, As they spurred their horses across the plain, Like riders in haste, who cannot wait.
7) And when they came to Jerusalem, Herod the Great, who had heard this thing, Sent for the Wise Men and questioned them; And said, “Go down unto Bethlehem, And bring me tidings of this new king.”	8) So they rode away; and the star stood still, The only one in the grey of morn; Yes, it stopped—it stood still of its own free will, Right over Bethlehem on the hill, The city of David, where Christ was born.
9) And the Three Kings rode through the gate and the guard, Through the silent street, till their horses turned And neighed as they entered the great inn-yard; But the windows were closed, and the doors were barred, And only a light in the stable burned.	10) And cradled there in the scented hay, In the air made sweet by the breath of kine, The little child in the manger lay, The child, that would be king one day Of a kingdom not human, but divine.
11) His mother Mary of Nazareth Sat watching beside his place of rest, Watching the even flow of his breath, For the joy of life and the terror of death Were mingled together in her breast.	12) They laid their offerings at his feet: The gold was their tribute to a King, The frankincense, with its odor sweet, Was for the Priest, the Paraclete, The myrrh for the body’s burying.
13) And the mother wondered and bowed her head, And sat as still as a statue of stone, Her heart was troubled yet comforted, Remembering what the Angel had said Of an endless reign and of David’s throne.	14) Then the Kings rode out of the city gate, With a clatter of hoofs in proud array; But they went not back to Herod the Great, For they knew his malice and feared his hate, And returned to their homes by another way.