Edgar Allan Poe
The Bells
1.
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 tintin adulation that
so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells,
bells,
Bells,
bells, bells
From
the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.
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!
3.
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
In a mad expostulation with
the deaf and frantic fire,
Leaping higher, higher,
higher, With a desperate desire
And
a resolute endeavor
Nownow
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 In the bosom of the palpitating air!
Yet
the ear, it fully knows,
By
the twanging
And
the clanging,
How
the danger ebbs and flows:
Yes,
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 danger of the bells!
4.
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 the tone!
For every sound that floats
From the rust within their throats
Is
a groan.
And
the peopleah, the people
They
that dwell up in the steeple
All
alone,
And
who, tolling, tolling, tolling,
In
that muffled monotone,
Fell
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.