Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was a committed abolitionist who viewed slavery as an abomination and the Civil War as a just cause for the Union, provided it resulted in the end of slavery and subsequent reconciliation between North and South. “Christmas Bells” directly references the Civil War due to a personal attachment: Longfellow was prompted to write the poem after his son was wounded in combat after enlisting against his father's wishes. Legend has it that Longfellow composed the poem on Christmas Day 1863, although it was not published until a few months before General Robert E. Lee's surrender to General Ulysses S. Grant. The publication took place in a children's literary magazine called Our Young Folks. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The speaker begins by announcing that on Christmas Day he could hear bells ringing a tune that was a familiar Christmas carol expressing good will toward men and hoping for peace on earth. The narrator is actually the only official character in the poem, although he remains anonymous and unidentified. Presumably it is intended to represent the poet's thoughts and feelings, but the anxiety he feels certainly seems to imply a greater universality. However, not to be confused with the representation of the universal spirit of Man. The context provides some clues to the identity of the speaker: he is alive during the Civil War and he is a Northerner and he is appalled by the idea of ​​waging war in order to protect the institution of the 'slavery. The opening lines of the poem set the scene: It is Christmas Day in a time when the bells of local township and village steeples regularly rang out familiar Christmas carols. The chime of Christmas carols played on the bells appeals to the narrator's personal perspective on the war and his reflection on how so many bell towers throughout Christendom resonated for the same universal desires and wishes. “Of peace on earth, of goodwill to men!” becomes the poem's constant refrain and its most effective use of parallel construction to give it a coherence of meaning throughout. Indeed, this single line is repeated no less than seven times and it is probably not by chance that the poem is also made up of exactly seven stanzas. And, yes, every verse ends with this refrain. The sound of bells ringing out chants of goodwill continues from night to day until they are at first simply interrupted, then finally drowned out by another familiar sound that has been heard echoing by many Americans throughout their vast country: “Then from each black and cursed mouth / The cannon thundered in the South. » War fought on the battlefield has the effect of an earthquake ripping half a continent apart and creating a division that provokes feelings of hopeless despair and desperate despondency that inevitably forces the narrator to bow his head and to finally accept the inescapable and undeniable truth that there is no peace on earth because in the end, "hatred is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, of good will towards the men! » The growing thunder of war intended to end the abominable national shame of slavery has made an absolute mockery of these songs extolling the virtue and even the mere existence of peace on earth and good will among men . The narrator's bitter awakening to the reality of what Christmas Day means in a war-torn country with one side actually ready to die. Protecting laws governing.