Which poet wrote the lyrics for "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear"?

Edmund Sears wrote the lyrics for “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear.” Sears was a Unitarian minister in Massachusetts, and his five-stanza poem first appeared in The Christian Register on December 29, 1849.

The poem is based on the angelic announcement of peace in Luke 2:14, but its emphasis reaches beyond the Nativity scene. Writing amid memories of the Mexican-American War, political upheaval, and wider nineteenth-century conflict, Sears portrayed a troubled world struggling to hear the angels’ message. Its concern with war, peace, human suffering, and hope gives the carol an unusually contemporary perspective for a Christmas hymn.

Richard Storrs Willis supplied the melody most associated with the song in the United States, publishing it in 1850. In Britain and other Commonwealth settings, the words are often paired with “Noel,” a tune later adapted by Arthur Sullivan. Phillips Brooks wrote “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” John Mason Neale translated “Good King Wenceslas,” and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote “Christmas Bells,” so the alternatives are notable Christmas-related writers but not the correct lyricist here.