One of the best known American poets, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, of the Class of 1825, contributed to the wealth of carols sung each holiday season when he wrote “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” on December 25, 1864.

The carol was originally a poem with seven stanzas. Two stanzas containing references to the American Civil War were omitted, giving us the carol we know in its present form. Read the original seven-stanza composition.