Old Familiar Carols

When my grandparents lived in Bella Vista, Arkansas, we would often make the seven hour car trip to visit them the day after Christmas. After eating a lunch of leftover turkey and Jell-O salad, we would make the obligatory trip to Wal-Mart. Sometimes (if we were lucky), we would also stop off at a junk store on the outskirts of town. One of my favorite finds there was a pack of mini playing cards for a game called Authors.

Through this game, I discovered the titles of works by James Fenimore Cooper, Sir Walter Scott, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Although I’ve read excerpts of Longfellow’s poems over the years, it wasn’t until I read Christmas Bells by Jennifer Chiaverini that I gave his personal life a second thought.  

The book opens with a harried choir-director, Sophia, rushing to make rehearsal on time at St. Margaret’s in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A featured piece in the program her children’s choir is singing is a song based on Longfellow’s poem. Throughout the novel, Chiaverini revisits the rehearsal character by character. Each of their stories reveals the hurts, fears, and longings they bring with them to the church on this wintery night.

 Interwoven throughout these modern-day stories is the story of Longfellow. We read about the crises he endures from his wife’s death to his son’s struggle to fight in the Civil War. Dark though it may be, his tale offers some perspective to the somewhat lighter tones of unrequited crushes and mischievous pranks of the contemporary story lines.  

I have long since misplaced that card game, but luckily the poetry of its authors is readily available.