Analysis of The Bells
Edgar Allan Poe 1809 (Boston) – 1849 (Baltimore)
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.
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 an 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!
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,
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 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
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,
Scheme | aaabcbbcDDaaAa aaaccefeefaaaaaagAAAa aaacchhfiiiiiifaajkkjlgglaggaaAAAa aaaccmeembbmgmgmnnxoooaaaaDDaADDaAaDa |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 101101 101 1011111001 11101010 0010111 10111 10101110 101001 10111 001111 101111001 101111 111 10100100101 1010101 101 101110011001 1010111 1111101 1010101 0101 1010101 10101110111 101 1110101 101110011 111 111 1010111 101011 10100010 10111 10111 111 1010001101 10111 101 1011101111 0010111 111111 111011 111011 111 00101010101010 001110101010 10101010 1010010 0010010 1111110 10110111 10111 1011101 101 1110101 101011 10101010001 1011101 101 0010 1010101 1010101 001 00100 1010101 101010100010101 101 10111 111 0010001101 1010101 101 10111011101 0010101 111011 1010010111 1100111 1010111 101 00101010 11110010 101 01101010 011010 10100110 1010101 11101110 11101110 111 0111111 01111 1 010101 0110101 1010101 0110011 10111 001111 1010101 101 10111 001111 1010101 10111 1010101 10111 11111 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 4,298 |
Words | 567 |
Sentences | 28 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 14, 21, 34, 37 |
Lines Amount | 106 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 599 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 140 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 03, 2023
- 2:50 min read
- 3,890 Views
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"The Bells" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/8461/the-bells>.
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