Few people can think about “Christmas bells” without humming along to the classic carol. However, the original poem the carol is based on has verses directly about the American Civil War that have been more or less overlooked since they were written, has been overtaken and excluded by Christmas spirit.
However for Madison author Jennifer Chiaverini, her interest was piqued when she discovered the often-forgotten stanzas about the Civil War in that poem so familiar to many Americans.
The first half of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's original poem includes the classic Christmas lines, but the rest of the poem clearly takes a darker turn eluding to the Civil War with a sad, even hopeless tone before restoring faith:
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."
"When I discovered that there were these two additional stanzas, I was really intrigued..." says Chiaverini. "It amazed me that (Longfellow) was able to write this poem that's very faith affirming and encourages others to have hope in difficult times when he himself was going through incredible grief."
Using the forgotten stanzas and Longfellow's personal history as inspiration for her latest book Christmas Bells, Chiaverini created a work of historical fiction that shifts between the Longfellow family in the 1860s and present day. The two different eras demonstrate how conflicts can effect families and create additional difficulties that challenge people's faith, hope, and willpower.
For Chiaverini, what was originally supposed to be a story only about the Longfellow family turned into the need to show the poem's influence across time. Chiaverini wanted to send a positive message and "unite people from all different walks of life - people who are separated even by centuries. It was then that I realized that the best way to show how relevant the poem was, was to show how the carol still speaks to us."
For Chiaverini, nothing makes Christmas complete quite like music, no matter what time you live in.
"Music, just like the best poetry, the best literature, can speak to us across centuries."
Madison novelist Jennifer Chiaverini is the author of over twenty books, the latest of which is Christmas Bells. She’ll talk about the book tomorrow morning at the Velveteen Rabbit bookshop in Fort Atkinson.
