Tonight, President George W. Bush closed his speech to the nation with words from the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, penned during the dark days of the War Between the States:

“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good will to men.”

Longfellow wrote those words in a poem on Christmas Day of 1864, four months before the war was finally ended with victory by the United States. The poem was “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”.

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.

Longfellow’s poem was later put to music. Here is a lovely MP3 of the tune done traditionally with stringed instruments, from www.jayesales.com. Sally DeFord Music offers downloads of the beloved LDS Hymn of Longfellow’s words put to music by John Baptiste Calkin. I chose this MP3 with vocals by Heather Prusse:

(LISTEN dialup)

(LISTEN hi-speed)

(download)