The Bells (IV)
by EDGAR ALLAN POE (1809-1849)
I-II Silver & Golden | III Brazen Bells | IV Iron Bells |
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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 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,
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.
I-II Silver & Golden | III Brazen Bells | IV Iron Bells |
Poe is known to have had an older brother named William Henry, and a younger sister, named Rosalie. What became of them? After the death of Poe’s mother, Rosalie was taken in by a different family than Edgar. William Henry continued to live in Baltimore with their grandparents. learn more |
Edgar Allan Poe Contemporaries:
Letitia E. Landon
Thomas Hood
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Anne Bronte
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