HEAR the sledges with the bells-silver bells!①What a worldof 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,② 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!③What aworld 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!④ Hear the loud alarum bells-brazen bells!
What a tale ofterror, 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 resolute endeavour 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 twangingand 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!⑤ Hear the tolling of the bells-iron bells!
What a world ofsolemn 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-⑥they are neither brute nor human-they are Ghouls!
And
their king it is who tolls; and he rolls, rolls, rolls, rolls a p?an from the bells! And his merry bosom swells with the p?an of the bells! And he dances and he yells; keeping time, time, time, in a sort of Runic rhyme, to the p?an 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.
- EDGAR ALLAN POE
NOTES
① Silver bells.-It is the purpose of the poem not only to describe, but also to imitate the characters of the different bells referred to. The verse is thus made to echo the various sounds successively. The silver sledge bells heard in the frosty air have a sharp and clear tinkling sound, suggestive of merriment.
② Runic rhyme.-Runes , the name of the peculiar characters of the old Teutonic andScandinavian alphabets, is also applied to Gothic verses or rhymes. Their peculiarity is, that the lines are very short, so that the rhymes-whether head-rhyme (alliteration)or tail- rhyme-follow one another in quick succession, like the peals of bells. This is what is meant by Runic rhyme ,-words which are themselves an example of alliteration.
③ Golden bells.-The mellow wedding bells express present rapture, and foretell a worldof happiness. The sledge bells make melody -that is, a succession of sweet sounds; but the wedding bells make harmony , or the sweet agreement of different notes sounded together,-a "concord of sweet sounds."④ Brazen bells.-These are the bells that startle the sleepers in the night with the alarm offire. Their tale of terror is screamed out in a wildly clamorous clash and roar; and this is wellimitated in the turbulency of the verse.
⑤ Iron bells.-This is the "passing bell," or knell, tolled at the hour of death, or immediately thereafter. Its character is that of a monody, or song of lamentation-solemn and mournful.
⑥ Ghouls (gools ), demons in Eastern fable, who were supposed to prey upon human bodies.