Scribd
Upload
186 views

The Bells: By: Edgar Allan Poe

Poe's poem "The Bells" describes the sounds of different types of bells and the emotions they evoke. It is divided into four sections where each set of bells represents a different stage of life. The first section describes sleigh bells as joyful and their melody foretelling merriment. The second describes wedding bells as golden and their harmony foretelling happiness. The third section depicts alarm bells as screaming out a tale of terror. The final section portrays tolling iron bells whose solemn sounds compel thoughts of melancholy and their tone menacing affright.

Uploaded by

MJ Dela Pena
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
186 views

The Bells: By: Edgar Allan Poe

Poe's poem "The Bells" describes the sounds of different types of bells and the emotions they evoke. It is divided into four sections where each set of bells represents a different stage of life. The first section describes sleigh bells as joyful and their melody foretelling merriment. The second describes wedding bells as golden and their harmony foretelling happiness. The third section depicts alarm bells as screaming out a tale of terror. The final section portrays tolling iron bells whose solemn sounds compel thoughts of melancholy and their tone menacing affright.

Uploaded by

MJ Dela Pena
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

The Bells III

Hear the loud alarm bells -


By: Edgar Allan Poe Brazen bells!
What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!
I
In the startled ear of night
Hear the sledges with the bells -
How they scream out their affright!
Silver bells!
Too much horrified to speak,
What a world of merriment their melody
They can only shriek, shriek,
foretells!
Out of tune,
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire,
In the icy air of night!
In a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic
While the stars that oversprinkle
fire,
All the heavens seem to twinkle
Leaping higher, higher, higher,
With a crystalline delight;
With a desperate desire,
Keeping time, time, time,
And a resolute endeavor
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
Now -now to sit or never,
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
By the side of the pale-faced moon.
From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Oh, the bells, bells, bells!
Bells, bells, bells -
What a tale their terror tells
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.
Of despair!
How they clang, and clash, and roar!
II What a horror they outpour
Hear the mellow wedding bells - On the bosom of the palpitating air!
Golden bells! Yet the ear it fully knows,
What a world of happiness their harmony By the twanging
foretells! And the clanging,
Through the balmy air of night How the danger ebbs and flows;
How they ring out their delight! Yet the ear distinctly tells,
From the molten-golden notes, In the jangling
And all in tune, And the wrangling,
What a liquid ditty floats How the danger sinks and swells
To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the
On the moon! bells -
Oh, from out the sounding cells Of the bells,
What a gush of euphony voluminously wells! Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
How it swells! Bells, bells, bells -
How it dwells In the clamor and the clangor of the bells!
On the Future! -how it tells
Of the rapture that impels
To the swinging and the ringing
Of the bells, bells, bells,
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells -
To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells!
IV
Hear the tolling of the bells -
Iron bells!
What a world of solemn thought their monody
compels!
In the silence of the night,
How we shiver with affright
At the melancholy menace of their tone!
For every sound that floats
From the rust within their throats
Is a groan.
And the people -ah, the people -
They that dwell up in the steeple,
All alone,
And who tolling, tolling, tolling,
In that muffled monotone,
Feel a glory in so rolling
On the human heart a stone -
They are neither man nor woman -
They are neither brute nor human -
They are Ghouls:
And their king it is who tolls;
And he rolls, rolls, rolls,
Rolls
A paean from the bells!
And his merry bosom swells
With the paean of the bells!
And he dances, and he yells;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the paean of the bells,
Of the bells -
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the throbbing of the bells,
Of the bells, bells, bells -
To the sobbing of the bells;
Keeping time, time, time,
As he knells, knells, knells,
In a happy Runic rhyme,
To the rolling of the bells,
Of the bells, bells, bells -
To the tolling of the bells,
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells -
To the moaning and the groaning of the bells

You might also like