The Bells

Edgar Allan Poe

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 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,
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.

1849.