It Came Upon the Midnight Clear

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"It Came Upon the Midnight Clear" was written by Edmund Sears (1810-1876), pastor of the Unitarian Church in Wayland, Massachusetts. It appeared on December 29, 1849 in the (Boston, Massachusetts) Christian Register. Sears is said to have written these words at the request of his friend, W. P. Lunt, a minister in Quincy, Massachusetts. In 1850 Richard Storrs Willis, a composer who trained under Felix Mendelssohn as well as editor and critic for the New York Tribune, wrote the melody called "Carol". The tune used in England, called "Noel" was adapted from an English melody by the composer Arthur Sullivan.

This carol is also known by the title "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear".

In 1981, Swedish dansband singer Stefan Borsch covered the song in Swedish, as "Jag ser en stjärna på himmelen" ("I see a star in the sky").

In 2003 a recording of the song by Sixpence None the Richer was released on the christmas-compilation "maybe this christmas too?" (label: Nettwerk America) ^[1]

In 2006, a recording of the song by Daryl Hall & John Oates hit number one on the Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart. ^[2]

[edit] Lyrics

It came upon the midnight clear,
That glorious song of old,
From angels bending near the earth
To touch their harps of gold:
"Peace on the earth, goodwill to men,
From heav'n's all gracious King!"
The world in solemn stillness lay
To hear the angels sing.

Still through the cloven skies they come,
With peaceful wings unfurled,
And still their heavenly music floats
O'er all the weary world;
Above its sad and lowly plains
They bend on hovering wing;
And ever o'er its Babel sounds
The blesséd angels sing.

Yet with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long;
Beneath the angel-strain have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong;
And man, at war with man, hears not
The love-song that they bring;
O hush the noise, ye men of strife,
And hear the angels sing.

And yet, beneath life's crushing load,
Whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful steps and slow,
Take heart, for comfort, love, and hope
come swiftly on the wing;
O rest beside the weary road,
And hear the angels sing.

For lo, the days are hastening on,
By prophets bards foretold,
When with the ever-circling years
Comes round the age of gold;
When peace shall over all the earth
Its ancient splendors fling,
And the whole world send back the song
Which now the angels sing.