THE BELLS Hear the sledges with the bells — What a world of merriment their melody foretells! In the icy air of night! While the stars that oversprinkle In a sort of Runic rhyme, To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells. Hear the mellow wedding-bells Golden bells! What a world of happiness their harmony foretells! How they ring out their delight! What a liquid ditty floats To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats On the moon! Oh, from out the sounding cells, How it swells! How it dwells On the Future! how it tells Of the rapture that impels To the swinging and the ringing Of the bells, bells, bells, bells, Bells, bells, bells To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells! Hear the loud alarum bells Brazen bells! What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells! In the startled ear of night How they scream out their affright! Too much horrified to speak, They can only shriek, shriek, Out of tune, In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire, Leaping higher, higher, higher, With a desperate desire, And a resolute endeavor, Now now to sit or never, By the side of the pale-faced moon. 5 10 15 20 Oh, the bells, bells, bells! What a tale their terror tells Of Despair! How they clang, and clash, and roar! On the bosom of the palpitating air! By the twanging, And the clanging, How the danger ebbs and flows; Yet the ear distinctly tells, In the jangling, And the wrangling, How the danger sinks and swells, By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells, Of the bells Of the bells, bells, bells, bells, Bells, bells, bells In the clamor and the clangor of the bells! 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 25 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 stoneThey are neither man nor woman They are neither brute nor human They are Ghouls! And their king it is who tolls; A pæan from the bells! And his merry bosom swells With the pean of the bells! To the pæan of the bells - To the throbbing of the bells To the sobbing of the bells; 5 Keeping time, time, time, To the rolling of the bells- To the tolling of the bells, To the moaning and the groaning of the bells. EDGAR ALLAN POE. HELPS TO STUDY This poem has been the delight of school children for many years. In reading it, we must use our ears even more than our eyes. We hear the bells ringing out their different messages. Always the words and the music of the poem imitate the joy or fright or horror of the bells, and just as bells repeat the same sound again and again, so the poem often repeats the same word many times. 1. In the first stanza select the words that imitate sleigh bells. 2. Is the time day or night? 3. How are wedding bells different from sleigh bells? 4. What words show that they are golden, not silver? 5. Select the words and phrases that hint at the happiness that the bride and the bridegroom expect to enjoy. 6. What is the time? 7. The third ringing of bells at night is very different. The bells are neither silver nor golden; what are they? 8. Is the music of this stanza sweeter or harsher? What makes it so? 9. Why is the fire said to wish to sit by the |