The Bells Analysis

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 an 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 clamor and the clangor 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 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.

.: :.

TO the first explication-
The repetition of the bells is to indicate each time period in poe's life. His use of assonance throughout the poem is clearly shown through such repetition. The bells toll to show the end of a time period, and a beginning of another.

| Posted on 2009-04-13 | by a guest

.: :.

hello.
Hekk Yea this poem is by Edgar Allen Poe

| Posted on 2009-03-06 | by a guest

.: :.

He sort of goes in order of life. From the bells we hear as children, the wedding bells of getting hitched when you're older. Then the bells of when you're sick and dying, troublesome parts of your life as an adult.He goes from happiness as you were young to more disturbed and troubled when you're older. I have no idea why he uses bells so much repetetivley. It sounds kind of funny in a scary way if you say it in a dark, melachony way.

| Posted on 2009-01-21 | by a guest

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In the first stanza of “The Bells,” Poe speaks of “sledges with the bells- Silver bells!”(Poe 1-2). He conveys happiness and joy with something well known for the time- sleighs (sledges), and silver bells. This stanza represents childhood as a “world of merriment” (Poe 3) and he uses silver because, like childhood, silver tarnishes. The second stanza represents young adulthood, with wedding bells. In this stanza, the bells are golden. Gold is considered one of the most pure and luxurious metals. It is high in value and was once only worn my noblemen and those of royalty. Poe associates gold with haughtiness and pride in royalty which over time only leads to their impending doom. Evidence of this is found when Poe writes, “How it dwells On the Future! how it tell Of the rapture that impels”(Poe 28-30).

| Posted on 2009-01-13 | by a guest

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Poe wrote this poem about the passage of life and the tone of our thoughts as we go through it. The first paragraph symbolizes the happiness and innocence of childhood, the bells a happy, jaunty melody. The second paragraph symbolizes the happiness of marriage, and the calm of middle life, the bells harmonious and warm. The third paragraph symbolizes the chaos of getting older, and how the thoughts seem to turn to one’s inevitable demise and the horror of death, the bells out of tune and sounding clashing and clamor. The fourth paragraph symbolizes the tone of one’s thoughts as death approaches; instead of thinking of the horror of death, one now begins to anticipate death and long for the relief it brings, the bells in a somewhat minor key.
hailey curry
8th grade

| Posted on 2009-01-13 | by a guest

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As a child, Edgar Allen Poe was left in a room with the dead corpse of his mother for three days. As a college student, he suffered from a gambling addiction, was disowned by his foster father, and later dropped out of school. At twenty-seven, Poe married his thirteen year old cousin. He received little wealth or fame during his life and after the death of his wife, in 1847, he began to drink and abuse drugs, only to be found dead in a gutter two years later drowned in his own vomit, and wearing someone else’s clothing (1). The horrors he experienced in his life are often expressed in his works of poetry and prose. In “The Bells,” Poe writes the first stanza and a half from a point of view that he longed to experience in his own life. While Poe might have been unaware of the psychological aspect of his work, he planned the form very meticulously. He uses the different sounds and different metals of four bells to illustrate different phases of human life and development. Each bell, and in turn, each canto, represents a different stage of human maturation and has a different tone to accompany it. Poe wields meter, rhyme scheme, syntax and diction in such a way as to create sensory images. Poe’s prosody expresses a different tone for each bell and also, a relative stage of life, starting with childhood, represented by sleigh bells, continuing to wedding bell and later alarm bells meaning chaos and war. Finally, Poe closes with a canto of iron bells of grieving, hopelessness and death.
Poe opens “The Bells” with tinkling, silver bells. These bells, so much like those that might be found on a child’s sleigh, represent the joy and innocence of childhood. Poe expresses this idea through prosody in his work by using several iambic sounds; soft unstressed words that appear, and are pronounced, quickly. “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!” (ll. 1-5). The rhyme scheme and meter of the first canto are melodic, similar in ways to the songs mothers might sing for their children. Long, harsh vowel sounds are avoided and compensated for by the repetition of soft vowel sounds which create a joyous tone. There is a similarity between the tone created by the meter and to the light metallic composition of the bells. The metal silver is a soft metal with a brilliant white metallic luster. The first stanza is the shortest, just as the stage of childhood seems to be the shortest period of life. Poe’s examples of prosody contribute to the innocence of the theme of childhood in canto one. He describes childhood as brilliant and full of wonderment but, like childhood, silver tarnishes and children grow up.
The second part of the poem involves marriage, a representation of young adulthood. Poe incorporates iambic and trochaic sounds and phrases into the second canto, such as might be associated with the sound of church bells rung during a wedding. This creates the effect of a distinguished tone while retaining an air of youthfulness, as demonstrated in lines 18-22. “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.” The metal in this canto is gold and as such, produces a golden tone. Gold is considered the noblest color, and exceeds all other metals in value, purity and finesse. It represents the light of the sun, and was once only worn as adornment by princes and other figures of royalty. Poe associates gold with the pride and nobility of youthfulness and marriage but also with the foreshadowing of impending doom. In reference to the sound of golden bells, Poe writes “How it dwells / On the future! – how it tells / Of the rapture that impels” (11. 29-32). Gold represents dignity and every person, whether of great historical significance or commonality, experiences dissapointment and downfall after his or her time of glory.
There is a noticeable change in tone as the third canto begins and a new theme is presented and carried throughout the remainder of the poem. The connotation noticeably shifts from positive to negative. As Poe’s tone changes, his use of prosody morphs as well. This stanza incorporates both long and short vowel sounds to add a frantic and choppy sound, reminiscent of anxiety and of worry. A trochaic sound also adds to this affect. “How they scream out their affright! / Too much horrified to speak, / They can only shriek, shriek / Out of tune (ll. 40-44). This canto describes the feelings of grief, hopelessness and strife that so often come with adult realization and pursuits. In this canto, the bells are described as “brazen” (ll. 38) and are made of bronze. Bold, shameless, chaotic and brash. In ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, the Bronze Age revolutionized primeval weaponry. There were great advances in warfare during this time and many antediluvian nations waged war upon one another. Chaos ensued in the archaic fertile delta just as it does in canto three and, as Poe is describing, in human life
This new and darker theme continues in canto four as the speaker further describes these feelings and realizations as life peters off to a painful end. The last canto describes the feelings of dying and the hopelessness that accompanies the speaker as he passes away. This canto has a similar negative connotation to the penultimate one but has replaced the former canto’s chaotic qualities with those of sobriety and seriousness. Poe again uses trochaic language, but he pairs it with spondee and uses longer vowel sounds to take a less frantic meter as the poem draws to an close. This creates a solemn image and tone for the reader. “At the melancholy menace of their tone! / For every sound that floats / from the rust within their throats / is a groan” (ll. 75-78). Iron bells are dull clanging bells that represent a solemn overtone of mourning.
Although there is an obvious volta between cantos two and three, some elements do remain constant throughout the work. Poe holds fast to an AAABCBBC progression of rhyming words. The effect that this unique pattern has is different based on the diction that comprised the pattern. For example, AAABCBBC creates a sing-song tone in the first two cantos where the diction has a positive connotation. That very same pattern creates helps the poet create a sense of insanity and disorder in third stanza, and then a solemn funeral hymn in the final canto to represent death. Another constant throughout the poem is the bells themselves. In order to represent life, Poe chooses an object that would have been familiar during his time. Bells were used for many different things incorporating different feelings, perfect to represent the changes we endure as we travel through life. Poe incorporates foreshadowing into his work to hint that life is ultimately pointless and miserable even in cantos that have a cheerful tone. In line 10 of canto one, “in a sort of Runic rhyme” Poe chooses to use the word “runic” for its double meaning; a poetry type written after the runic alphabet, which is the denotation, and an undistinguishable and confusing written piece being the underlying meaning that Poe uses to hint at what is yet to come.

| Posted on 2008-10-27 | by a guest

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In response to the interpreter, who claimed that the subject is engaged in a Faustian encounter with Satan, let us look at the subject of the stanzas. The subject of the following excerpt is not the speaker, which the interpreter incorrectly assumed, but the bells themselves:
"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."
They can only shriek yet appear desirous of being next to the moon (a pathetic fallacy, although bells are not exactly natural objects but man-made). To the typical interpretation (see Seasons Change) I would like to add something. The bells are rigged by humans (whom the speakers condemns as "Ghouls" because these men are able to control the emotions of mankind, by simply ringing the bells (from a twinkling to a knelling). In a sense, these male and female bell-masters are active agents and the bells--who can only shriek yet long admission next to the moon--are passive agents (in the above-quoted stanzas they are the ones, who expostulate to the fire for its abatement), as passive as the speaker, who dies. For it is not only the speaker, who dies, but the bells, which are "moaning" and "groaning."
I'd love to analyze the poem further and claim that the male and female bell-ringers--controlled by the king--are as passive as the bells, bells, bells. However, I know very little about Poe's political beliefs and therefore will let someone else take the reins.

| Posted on 2008-07-24 | by a guest

.: Death :.

if you have not noticed poe's story, The Bells, is all about death (mostly). he is always writing about death. like childhood, then wedding, the thie BIGGEST STANZA is DEATH. weird.

| Posted on 2008-05-04 | by a guest

.: Prosody in "The Bells" :.

Edger Allen Poe's poem “The Bells” uses the different sounds of four bells to exemplify different phases of human life. Each bell, and each canto, represents a different stage of human life. Poe uses meter, rhyme scheme, syntax and diction to create sensory images. Poe uses prosody to express a different tone for each bell and sequentially, each stage of life starting with childhood represented by sleigh bell then continues to wedding bells, later alarm bells meaning chaos and war; finally, he ends with iron bells of grieving, hopelessness and death.
Poe’ opens “The Bells” with silver bells. These bells are the bells on a child’s sleigh and they represent the joy and innocence of childhood. Poe expresses this point through prosody in his work by using several iambic sounds; soft unstressed words that appear and are pronounced quickly. “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!” (ll. 1-5). The rhyme scheme and meter of the first canto are melodic as mothers sing for their children. Long, harsh vowel sounds are replaced by the repetition of soft vowel sounds. Also, the first stanza is the shortest, just as the stage of childhood seems to be the shortest period of life. Poe’s examples of prosody contribute to the innocence of the theme of childhood in canto one.
The second part of the poem is about marriage which represents young adulthood. Poe incorporates iambic and trochaic words into the second canto. This creates a distinguished tone while keeping a connotation of youth, as seen in lines 18-22. “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”.
The reader notices a change in connotation in the third stanza and a new theme is presented and carried throughout the remainder of the poem. The connotation shifts from positive to blatantly negative. As Poe’s tone changes, his use of prosody morphs as well. This stanza incorporates both long and short vowel sounds to add a frantic and choppy sense of worry. Trochaic meter also adds to this affect. “How they scream out their affright! / Too much horrified to speak, / They can only shriek, shriek / Out of tune (ll. 40-44). This canto describes the death of the speakers’ wife and marks the transition from joy to melancholy.
This new theme continues in canto four as the speaker describes his mourning of his late wife and how he began to drink himself to madness as a result. Ultimately, however, he describes his own death. This canto has a similar negative connotation to the penultimate one but is more somber rather than chaotic. Poe again uses trochaic language but he pairs it with spondee and uses long vowel sounds. This creates a solemn image for the reader. “At the melancholy menace of their tone! / For every sound that floats / from the rust within their throats / is a groan” (ll. 75-78).
In “The Bells”, Poe’s prosody is what creates the tone and mood of the entire poem. He achieves this form of expression from expertly integrating meter and repletion in his work.


| Posted on 2007-11-05 | by a guest

.: Life/Temptation :.

My interpretation of the poem is that it is about life, and the stages. The first part of the poem represents childhood - it is happy and speaks of sledges, something a child may use. Poe says that "All the heavens, seem to twinkle/with a crystalline delight", which may reflect the angels' pride at creating such a happy, innocent child
The second part is the second part of life, marriage. It is very optimistic, and is similar to the first part. Poe says, "How it dwells on the Future!-how it tells of the rapture that impels". The rapture described is at first viewed as a moment of beautiful passion, as in the context of marriage. The third part of the poem, hoever, twists the meaning.
Here, in the third part, the poem becomes dark, and could describe, among many things, a man dying in a fire. In a deeper interpretation, based on the events in the fourth passage, this passage could detail Satan taking advantage of the person described. Though the deal is not described, it tells of the man dying, or being engulfed in Satan's flames, stereotypical of hell. Poe says, "In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire/In a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic fire." Here Poe means that the person has realized his mistake, and finds that Satan has come to take his life. The man starts pleading for his life, but the devil kills him anyways. This stage in life would be treated as temptation. The man's first known temptation occurs after he is married, a symbol of adulthood. He represents the ill chosen path a man takes when faced with temptation and does not realize its harm.
The last passage is self explanatory. The man's funeral process is conducted, and the attendants learn that they must follow the ritcheous path of life. The man has set an example, and people at the funeral are either learning from his example, or, in a darker sense, realizing that they too have succumbed to temptation, and that they are looking at their fate. The passage ends with a description of Satan and his minions dancing with delight at taking another soul and at the opportunity to take others.
The use of bells to describe the events in the poem reflects religion. The most basic and early use of bells was for various religious purposes. This strenthened reference to religion enforces the other religous ideas.
Also, every time the word bells is said in succession, it is said exactly seven times. In Christianity, Judaism, and Islam (two religions which Poe has had prior experience with), the number seven is a very important number. Most notably in Christianity, seven is the number of deadly sins. This keeps up to date with the theme of temptation.

| Posted on 2007-01-18 | by a guest

.: Seasons change :.

I'm considering writing an analysis on this poem for an application for an academic summer program, because it is a beautiful poem and I think that quite a lot can be gotten from it. I've found thus far three separate ways I can take the symbolism of this poem.I will tell you the first of my ideas here. The poem is clearly divided into four sections, and I see this as symbolic of the four seasons. The first, whilse starting in winter, is the act of winter melting into spring, and the very joy of spring and the greenery springing forth from where all was bleak. This is the shortest, and the most joyful verse of the poem. "here the sledges with the bells" sledges indicates snow, but I think this verse is about the snow melting in a new beginning.
The second verse is summer, and the end of spring. All is still happy and light, the bells in tune and joyful. The word "golden" is used twice, and that is a word which brings to mind light and summer, the most carefree time of the year.
The second verse, with its sudden urgency and terror, are Autumn; the complete change in tone alerting us to a change, to a step towarss the end.The fire represents the reds and oranges of autumn leaves, and the fear and frenzy is the animal and people rushing to finish the harvest and complete all that must be done before winter sets in.
The last verse, of course, represents winter. "How we shiver with affright" shows how the cold and despair set in, and the whole tone of the verse speaks to the darkened state of mind when we begin to lose light. The ghouls mentioned tolling the bells are the wind, wraiths who whistle in on the cold piercing winter wind. Their king is the devil, the devil who loves the dark of winter and dances in it. The very last nine lines of the poem are all rhythm and so like a song; this is the devil's dance but also the onslaught of winter weather, the patter and howl of the snow, and the lashing sleet and rain, the whistle of the wind. "To the moaning and the groaning of the bells" is the closing, and so the year is closed with depair, moaning and an ending of light. Depression, until perhaps the snow melts again.

| Posted on 2006-01-06 | by Approved Guest

.: Art :.

They say poe was inspired when one of his closest lady friends got and he heard the wedding bells.
I'm fairly dunce on the formal way of analysing poetry but it is a given that each of the bells represent a stage of life. The poem also shares the melancholy tone famous in poes writing. (Notice how it ends with the bell that represents death) The poem also speaks on how with the each proceeding stage in life on beauses harder, colder, a lower note. To derive such a complex poem from such a simple muse is indeed a declaration of poe as an artist.

| Posted on 2005-06-30 | by azeremen12