Throwback Thursday: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day"

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.

I thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song
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."

Till, ringing singing, on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime,
Of peace on earth, good will to men!

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 

Merry Christmas and God's best to you in 2026.

The Reincarnation of Paul Revere's Horse

Here's another recent painting by Daniel Botkin titled The Reincarnation of Paul Revere’s Horse, based on a line from Dylan's "Tombstone Blues." Botkin adds the following explanation regarding the symbols assembled here.

No, I don’t believe in reincarnation. The title is not meant to be taken literally. It has to be interpreted.

     What is the interpretation thereof? If you buy the painting, or a full-color print on canvas, you can interpret it any way you wish.

    When I took this painting to get it professionally photographed at the company that makes my art prints, it generated lots of conversation among the people who work there. When I came to retrieve the painting, some of them wanted to interrogate me. They recognized the rider with the bloodied ear and raised fist as Donald Trump, but they did not know what to think of that, or what to think of all the other details in the painting.

     “Does the yellow serpent surrounding the clock have something to do with the brass serpent that Moses made?”

     No.

     “Do the three sixes at the bottom of the clock have something to do with the 666 Mark of the Beast in Revelation?”

     Well, the serpent is a symbol of evil, and the 666 is right above the serpent’s head, so I suppose there is a connection.

     “Why is there a mask on Trump’s face? Are you suggesting he is a super-hero, or a hypocrite?”

     If you buy it, you can understand it whichever way you prefer.

     Here’s the real reason I painted the mask. While painting Trump’s face, I had trouble getting the eyes and nose to look right. I painted and repainted the face several times, but I could not get the eyes and nose to look like Trump’s. Finally I decided to just cover the eyes and nose with an orange mask. Problem solved.

     I had been planning to do this painting for quite a few years, but I did not know that Trump would be the rider of Paul Revere’s horse. The idea for the painting came from a line in “Tombstone Blues,”  a Bob Dylan song from the 1960s: “The city fathers are trying to endorse / The reincarnation of Paul Revere’s horse.”

     Some of Dylan’s lyrics do not make much sense, but they provide ideas for interesting artwork. I planned to place Paul Revere’s horse at the 12 o’clock position, based on Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere.” Then I planned to show the horse gradually deteriorating into a pile of bones at the 6 o’clock position, then gradually being reconstituted.

     Last summer I bought a 48” x 48” canvas and started looking online to find a photo of a horse and rider that I could use for a model. I was frustrated, because I could not find a pose that I liked. Then Trump was shot in the ear. I looked at the news, and lo, I beheld a photo of Trump standing with his bloodied ear, his fist raised in the air beside the American flag, and I knew I had the perfect pose for the rider of Paul Revere’s horse.

     Some of the details in the painting are derived from Longfellow’s poem. There are lanterns in the church belfry, “one if by land, two if by sea.” I borrowed the church building from Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night. Longfellow’s poem mentions graves in the church yard, so I added some blue tombstones by Van Gogh’s church. Longfellow’s rider was “booted and spurred,” so I shod the rider with spurred boots. Paul Revere arrived in Lexington at 1 a.m. and in Concord at 2 a.m., so I put the city signs at those positions. There was a “gilded weathercock” in Lexington, which I included there.

     I put a tricornered MAGA hat on the rider, then decided to put MAGA on the horse’s forehead as well. A Trump-hating Facebook Buddy of mine posted a photo of a red MAGA hat, accompanied by some text that suggested that wearing MAGA on the forehead is taking the Mark of the Beast. Since the Bible speaks of the Mark of the Beast being not only on the forehead but also on the right hand, I added a MAGA bracelet on the horse’s right hoof. That in turn gave  me the idea to add two additional sixes at the bottom of the clock, connecting 666 with the serpent below the VI VI VI, and with the bones of Paul Revere’s dead horse, Brown Beauty, whose blue tombstone is positioned in Tombstone, Arizona.

     And as Paul Harvey used to say, That, my friends, is the rest of the story!

Prints on 32” x 32” stretched canvas available, $350 plus shipping.

See more of Daniel Botkin's Dylan-themed artwork in his book: https://www.lulu.com/.../hardcover/product-45qjwn2.html

The Bare Facts About Lady Godiva

I'm back on a cleaning binge, attempting to make more than a half-hearted effort to discard the the rats nest of junk that's crowding the crannies of my office and garage. The idea of cleaning is always easier than the actual doing. Nevertheless, I will persist, and hopefully make greater progress this year than last.

So earlier this week while rummaging through items to part with I grabbed volume 16 of the Book of Knowledge and opened it to a random page which turned out to be the story of Lady Godiva. When I read the account of Lady Godiva's historic ride, I learned that there was more to the story than just a woman riding naked through an English village. I mean, every good story has conflict, so there had to be more than one character. And there has to be motivation, right? A woman rides naked through town on a horse is not a story. It's an incident. Or a scene. (It would make a scene if it occurred today.) There would have to have been more, and I found the answers in the Book of Knowledge.

The title of the piece is How Lady Godiva Helped Her People. It begins: "When Leofric the Dane was Lord of Coventry, in the year 1040, he heavily increased his taxes on the townsfolk. The people met together ad sent their chief men to implore his wife, the Lady Godiva, who was greatly beloved by them for her many gracious acts to the sick and poor, to plead with her lord to remit some of the heavy taxes." 

In the space of two sentences the author has packed a lot of information. The time period is the Middle Ages. The location of the town or village is specified. Lady Godiva's husband is a Lord of Coventry, which is located in the middle of England, and roughly 40 miles from the Forest of Nottingham where the tale of Robin Hood took place about 500 years later and 17 miles from Birmingham where Bob Dylan was famously booed when he went electric 926 years later.

These two sentences lay out the backstory as well. Lord Leofric had placed a heavy burden on the lives of these people he ruled, and it must have been more than they could bear because it motived them to meet to discuss their options. Because Lady Godiva had a generous spirit and was well-known to be an advocate for the sick and the poor, the townsfolk had a basis for hope and they sent a small contingent to meet with her.

"Accordingly Lady Godiva pleaded with her lord on their behalf, but he roughly refused, saying, 'Shameless are you to plead for these base, whining serfs.'"

Here we have the setup.

"Shameless am I? Then shameless will I be indeed, an we shall see whether these serfs be base or honorable," replied she with spirit. "For I will ride through this town, clad in nought but my long tresses, if I can thus turn you from your cruel purpose."

That seems like quite a bargain, and Leofric went for it.

Lady Godiva notified the townsfolk about the deal and the following day they all remained indoors as she rode naked from one end of the town to the other on her horse. Leofric kept his word and the burden was removed, hence "to this day the citizens of Coventry delight to do honor to the memory of Lady Godiva."

* * * *
AND NOW, THE REST OF THE STORY

When I turned to Google for further details I found this story, and a more graphic illustration, at the History Channel's website.

Who Was Lady Godiva

You might associate the name “Godiva” with a brand of Belgian chocolates, but it was first popularized as part of a 900-year-old English legend. The original Lady Godiva was an 11th century noblewoman married to Leofric, the powerful Earl of Mercia and Lord of Coventry. As the story goes, Godiva was troubled by the crippling taxes Leofric had levied on the citizens of Coventry. After she repeatedly asked him to lessen the burden, Leofric quipped that he would lower taxes only if she rode naked on horseback through the center of town. Determined to help the public, Godiva stripped off her clothes, climbed on her horse and galloped through the market square with only her long flowing hair to cover herself. Before leaving, she ordered the people of Coventry to remain inside their homes and not peek, but one man, named Tom, couldn’t resist opening his window to get an eyeful. Upon doing so, this “Peeping Tom” was struck blind. After finishing her naked ride, Godiva confronted her husband and demanded that he hold up his end of the bargain. True to his word, Leofric reduced the people’s debts.

While most historians consider her nude horseback ride a myth, Lady Godiva—or “Godgifu” as some sources call her—was indeed a real person from the 11th century. The historical Godiva was known for her generosity to the church, and along with Leofric, she helped found a Benedictine monastery in Coventry. Contemporary accounts of her life note that “Godgifu” was one of only a few female landowners in England in the 1000s, but they make no mention of a clothes-free horseback ride. That story appears to have first cropped up some 100 years after her death in a book by the English monk Roger of Wendover, who was known for stretching the truth in his writings. The legend of “Peeping Tom,” meanwhile, didn’t become a part of the tale until the 16th century. The Godiva myth was later popularized in songs and in verse by the likes of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, who wrote a famous poem called “Godiva” in 1840.

* * * *
What do you think? Was the nude horseback ride a legend? A fable? Fake news? The "Peeping Tom" story certainly feels like an add-on. I almost added it to the first account myself just for the fun of it. Then I discovered that had already been done centuries ago.

Related Reading:
Godiva, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Naked Economics, by Charles Wheelan

Meantime, life goes on... Stay warm.

Two Poems About Life

ARS LONGA, VITA BREVIS

When life is hard we sometimes need a lift. Sometimes it can me a psalm or a song, and sometimes a poem. And sometimes it's a poem that itself is something of a psalm like this one by Longfellow.

A lot of people don't care much for poetry. It may be that some haven't learned what a pleasure it can be because the only time they read poetry growing up was in school where they had to write a paper on it. Poetry wasn't read for enjoyment but for the purpose of getting a grade.

Here's a tip. The only real way to enjoy a poem is to read it slowly. And even better, to read it twice. Enjoy.

A Psalm of Life 
BY HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

What The Heart Of The Young Man Said To The Psalmist.

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world’s broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act,— act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o’erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

* * * *
The following poem, written by my grandmother Elizabeth Sandy, appeared in a small volume of poems titled Helping the Sun Grow.

Life

If you, in your way of life
Have ever been a stranger
To the dread scarred face,
And frightening ways of danger,
Then the safety you possess
Is hard to realize.
Until some danger threatens you
You blindly close your eyes.

If failure never came to you
Success can have no savor.
Your love must know some hate
Or it can have no flavor!
If sorrow never choked our throats
Or teardrops dimmed our eye
The dizzying heights of happiness
Are lost and gone awry!

He who reads diligently
And after truth has sought
And has truly never doubted
Has as truly never thought!
So use your doubts and sorrows
Like a springboard from the sky,
The lower down they take you
The higher up you fly!

* * * *
Do you enjoy reading or writing poetry? Here's a link to a page on my original website where I've assembled a handful of my own early poems.

Check out some of my other writing at Eds-Books.com, eight books from Free to $15.

On Self Awareness

Notes and quotes on self-awareness snatched from readings and various places on the net. Be sure to take your time to reflect along the way.

“Above all, do not lie to yourself. A man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point where he does not discern any truth either in himself or anywhere around him, and thus falls into disrespect towards himself and others.”
~Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

"We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done."
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone you may still exist, but you have ceased to live."
~Mark Twain

"People of the world don't look at themselves, and so they blame one another."
~Mevlana Rumi

"If we are too busy, if we are carried away every day by our projects, our uncertainty, our craving, how can we have the time to stop and look deeply into the situation--our own situation, the situation of our beloved one, the situation of our family and of our community, and the situation of our nation and of the other nations?"
~Thich Nhat Hanh

"It's surprising how many persons go through life without ever recognizing that their feelings toward other people are largely determined by their feelings toward themselves, and if you're not comfortable within yourself, you can't be comfortable with others."

~Sydney J. Harris

"Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself."

~William Faulkner

"Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't."

~Margaret Thatcher

"It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching."

~St. Francis of Assisi

Please click on photos to enlarge.