Henry Wadsworth Longfellow could write poetically...
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Object:
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow could write poetically about "my gospel," even as Paul did in his concluding words in his Letter to the Romans.
As Christmas 1863 approached, Longfellow was a broken and a forlorn man. A little over a year after he married and moved to Boston to teach at Harvard his wife died. He did not marry for seven years but again in 1861 tragedy struck when his second wife while lighting a match accidentally set her dress on fire and she burned to death. Furthermore, he hated slavery and war and was disillusioned by the prospects of the Civil War not ending in victory.
On Christmas Day in 1863 as Longfellow listened to the ringing of the church bells, he took up his pen and wrote the hymn "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day." The hymn begins on a down note but gradually ascends to express the poet's hope in the gospel: "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, goodwill to men."
As Christmas 1863 approached, Longfellow was a broken and a forlorn man. A little over a year after he married and moved to Boston to teach at Harvard his wife died. He did not marry for seven years but again in 1861 tragedy struck when his second wife while lighting a match accidentally set her dress on fire and she burned to death. Furthermore, he hated slavery and war and was disillusioned by the prospects of the Civil War not ending in victory.
On Christmas Day in 1863 as Longfellow listened to the ringing of the church bells, he took up his pen and wrote the hymn "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day." The hymn begins on a down note but gradually ascends to express the poet's hope in the gospel: "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, goodwill to men."
