In 2020, We Need to Hear Them. Christmas Bells, 1863

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was in a very dark place in 1863 when he wrote this poem that would eventually be set to music and come to be known as I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day. He lost his wife in 1861 in a horrific way. Still grieving, Longfellow wrote in his journal on December 25, 1862, "A merry Christmas' say the children, but that is no more for me."  In 1863 his son who enlisted to fight in the Civil War was gravely wounded in battle. Longfellow was nursing him back to health at home. Deeply depressed and despairing on that Christmas morning 1863, he heard the bells, and the rest is history.