"The Christmas Bells Poem"

By:   Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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!

      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!'

http://www.carols.org.uk/christmas_bells_longfellow.htm