The Bells (I-II)


by EDGAR ALLAN POE (1809-1849)

I-II Silver & Golden III Brazen Bells IV Iron Bells

Hear this poem. Click arrow to start

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!

I-II Silver & Golden III Brazen Bells IV Iron Bells

Tuberculosis was a dreaded disease in the 19th century, one to which not only Poe’s wife succumbed, but also his mother. When Virginia Poe came down with this disease, there were no sanitariums or antibiotics with which to cure her. It was not even known at this time that tuberculosis was highly contagious. continue here

Edgar Allan Poe Contemporaries:
Victor Hugo
Longfellow
Mikhail Lermontov
Sarah Helen Whitman

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