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- The Bells
- by Edgar Allan Poe
- (published 1849)
- I.
- HEAR the sledges with the bells --
- Silver bells !
- What a world of merriment their melody foretells !
- How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
- In the icy air of night !
- While the stars that oversprinkle
- All the heavens, seem to twinkle
- With a crystalline delight ;
- Keeping time, time, time,
- In a sort of Runic rhyme,
- To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
- From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
- Bells, bells, bells --
- From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.
- II.
- Hear the mellow wedding bells
- Golden bells!
- What a world of happiness their harmony foretells !
- Through the balmy air of night
- How they ring out their delight !
- From the molten-golden notes,
- And all in tune,
- What a liquid ditty floats
- To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats
- On the moon !
- Oh, from out the sounding cells,
- What a gush of euphony voluminously wells !
- 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,
- Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
- Bells, bells, bells --
- To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells !
- III.
- Hear the loud alarum bells --
- Brazen bells !
- What 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,
- In a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic 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.
- Oh, the bells, bells, bells !
- What a tale their terror tells
- Of Despair !
- How they clang, and clash, and roar !
- What a horror they outpour
- On the bosom of the palpitating air !
- Yet the ear, it fully knows,
- 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 clamour and the clangour 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 meaning 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,
- Rolls
- A pæan from the bells !
- And his merry bosom swells
- With the pæan of the bells !
- And he dances, and he yells ;
- Keeping time, time, time,
- In a sort of Runic rhyme,
- To the pæan 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.
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