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Transcript

The Bells

Edgar Allan Poe

In a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic fire,

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. 50

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 55

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; 60

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, 65

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, 70

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! 75

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, 80

All alone,

And who tolling, tolling, tolling,

In that muffled monotone,

Feel a glory in so rolling

On the human heart a stone— 85

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 pæan from the bells;

And his merry bosom swells

With the pæan of the bells,

And he dances, and he yells: 95

Keeping time, time, time,

In a sort of Runic rhyme,

To the pæan of the bells,

Of the bells:

Keeping time, time, time, 100

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, 105

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, 110

Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,

Bells, bells, bells—

To the moaning and the groaning of the bells.

Title

"The Bells"

Without reading the poem, and looking only at the title, one may believe the poem will be about some sort of bells. We, personally, thought of Christmas bells, or of church bells as you walk through town.

Stanza #3

Paraphrase

Stanza #4

The bells are ringing to alert everyone of the fire that has sprung up. The bells try and stop the fire but it continues. It is night and the moon is out, maybe a full moon. The fire grows so high and almost reaches the moon. The bells still continue ringing, loudly, abruptly. Everyone knows danger is near when the bells fade out and in "the sinking or the swelling in the anger 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! 40

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, 45

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. 50

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 55

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; 60

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, 65

Of the bells,

Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,

Bells, bells, bells—

In the clamor and the clangor of the bells!

Paraphrase

A rusty iron bell is ringing. People gather at the church steeple, but they are ghosts. These are funeral bells. The ghouls or ghosts are the ones ringing the eerie bells, happily, in the steeple for all to hear, in "a happy runic rhyme."

Hear the tolling of the bells, 70

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! 75

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, 80

All alone,

And who tolling, tolling, tolling,

In that muffled monotone,

Feel a glory in so rolling

On the human heart a stone— 85

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, 90

Rolls

A pæan from the bells;

And his merry bosom swells

With the pæan of the bells,

And he dances, and he yells: 95

Keeping time, time, time,

In a sort of Runic rhyme,

To the pæan of the bells,

Of the bells:

Keeping time, time, time, 100

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, 105

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, 110

Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,

Bells, bells, bells—

To the moaning and the groaning of the bells.

Connotation

Stanza #3

Attitude

  • Rhyme/Rhythm
  • Poe uses a rhythm that adds stress on the first syllable in each phrase of the poem: i.e. "With a desperate desire." (line 12)
  • Poe's rhyming pattern helps move the poem like the rhythm does. Poe uses rhyme at the end of lines as well as in the middle, i.e.:
  • "twangling" and "clanging" (27)
  • "bells" and "tells" (2&3)
  • "speak" and "shriek" (6&7)
  • "higher" and "desire" (11&12)
  • Alliterations:
  • line 3 - "What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!"
  • line 14 - "Now—now to sit or never"
  • line 17 - " What a tale their terror tells"
  • Onomatopoeias: sheirk, clang, clash, twang, clamor, clangor, twanging, wrangling
  • Assonance:
  • line 20 - "What a horror they outpour."
  • Personification:
  • The bells are personified throughout the stanza, "How they scream out their affright!", "They can only shriek, shriek." (lines 5 & 7)

In the last two stanzas, there is a negative feeling and mood about the types of bells that the reader reads about. In the third stanza you have the brazen, alarm bells, that make the reader horrified yet alert. Then in the last stanza you have the iron, funeral bells. These funeral bells add to the eeriness and fear in the poem. Another part that adds to these emotions is the mentioning of "Ghouls" and people who are not of man or woman.

Stanza #4

  • Assonance:
  • line 3 - "solemn thought their monody compels"
  • Rhyme/Rhythm:
  • "compels" and "bells" (2&3)
  • "night" and "affright" (4&5)
  • "people" and "steeple" (10&11)
  • "monotone", "stone", and "alone" (12, 14, 16)

Theme

Shifts

When you stop looking at only the bells and pay attention to the story in the poem, you begin to recognize the theme of the poem which is the cycle of life. The gentle sleigh bells as the beginning of life, then the wedding bells for the start of an independent life. Then as life becomes hectic, so does the poem, with the alarm bells and chaos with the fire. Then finally, the funeral bells, signaling death, which is portrayed as scary but eventually embrassed happily.

Title

In the beginning of the poem, Poe writes of sleigh bells and wedding bells. These types of bells have a light and gentle connotation to them. Then when you move to the third stanza of the poem the reader sees a change in tone. The poem changes to a chaotic, alarming mood with the mention of alarm bells and fire. After this state of chaos, the mood changes once again in the last stanza as that chaos turns to fear, with the change of alarm bells to funeral bells.

There is also word choices that help make this shift in the poem, such as "jingle and tingle" to "clanging, clashing, and roaring" then finally to "moan and groan."

After reading the poem, the reader recognizes the poem is about many different kinds of bells and what emotion they provoke in a person as you read. Each bell has its own story along with its own sound to tell its story.

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