The Bells
Edgar Allan Poe, 1809 - 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.
Patient Name
What is onomatopoeia?
Onomatopoeia is defined as a word which imitates the natural sounds of things.
It creates a sound effect that mimics the sound described, making the description more effective and interesting.
Common Examples:
The buzzing bee flew away.
The sack fell into the river with a splash.
The books fell onto the table with a loud thump.
He looked at the roaring sky.
The rustling leaves kept me awake.
Onomatopoeia
on-o-mat-o-poe-ia [on-uh-mat-uh-pee-uh]
http://knowingpoe.thinkport.org/writer/thebells_play.asp
Wow! Game Time
Assonance long and short "a"
What type of bells are ringing in the first stanza?
What type of bells are ringing in the second stanza?
What type of bells are ringing in the third stanza?
Who rings the bells in the fourth stanza?
What do the bells symbolize?
Boom is an obvious onomatopoeia, but some of you may ask why is weep not one?
Matching
Well, if you think about it weep is a verb, and it doesn't imitate what weeping really sounds like.
How the danger ebbs and flows!
Birth
What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
Death
PIANO
By D.H. Lawrence
Softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me;
Taking me back down the vista of years, till I see
A child sitting under the piano, in the boom of the tingling strings
And pressing the small, poised feet of a mother who smiles as she sings.
In spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song
Betrays me back, till the heart of me weeps to belong
To the old Sunday evenings at home, with winter outside
And hymns in the cozy parlor, the tinkling piano our guide.
So now it is vain for the singer to burst into clamour
With the great black piano appassionato. The glamour
Of childish days is upon me, my manhood is cast
Down in the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child for the past.
In the silence of the night, How we shiver with affright!
Maturity
Marriage
What a world of happiness their harmony foretells!
Tigger
Interjections
They're a part of speech where the speaker exhibits emotion.
DO NOT confuse onomatopoeia with interjections!!
Some examples of interjections are:
However, sometimes onomatopoeic
words are used as interjections:
Boom! That's how you do it.
Pool Party by Natasha Niemi
Squeal!
Kids are running everywhere.
Running and Splash –
Falling in the pool.
The music plays –
Stomp! Stomp!
The children dance.
Finally, the food is off the grill-
Munch, munch, munch!
An onomatopoeia for
scream and shout could
have been Eeek! or Ahhh!
What does the fox say?
When The Lights Go Out by Alan Loren
The door went creak
In the still of the night
The floor went bump
Oh what a fright
All of a sudden, we heard a chime
The grandfather clock was keeping good time
We turned down a hallway and heard a loud crash
It seems that someone had dropped all the trash
So many sounds when the lights go out
It’s enough to make you scream and shout!
Poems
1
April
Meeting at Night by Robert Browning
Three fields to cross till a farm appears;
A tap at the pane, the quick sharp scratch
And blue spurt of a lighted match,
Fossils by Ogden Nash
At midnight in the museum hall
The fossils gathered for a ball
There were no drums or saxophones,
But just the clatter of their bones,