Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote these words in 1864. His wife had just died in a fire that burned down their house, and the nation was in the third year of the Civil War–to this day, the bloodiest war ever for America. That any man could write such a hymn as this, still sung 150 years later, displays the image of God in us.
And nobody sang it like Burl ives…
“Into every life some rain must fall.” Longfellow knew this to be true – his first wife at 22 from having a miscarriage.
Burl Ives was a good actor also.
I think he won an Oscar once.