The Bells (poem): Difference between revisions

[[File:Bells Poe fair copy 1847.jpg|thumb|150px|First two pages of Poe's handwritten manuscript for "The Bells", 1848]][[File:Bells 2 Poe fair copy 1847.jpg|thumb|Additional stanzas of Poe's handwritten manuscript for "The Bells", 1848.]]

"'''The Bells'''" is a heavily [[Onomatopoeia|onomatopoeic]] poem by [[Edgar Allan Poe]] which was not published until after his [[Death of Edgar Allan Poe|death]] in 1849. It is perhaps best known for the [[diacope|diacopic]] use of the word "bells.". The poem has four parts to it; each part becomes darker and darker as the poem progresses from "the jingling and the tinkling" of the bells in part 1 to the "moaning and the groaning" of the bells in part 4.

This poem can be interpreted in many different ways, the most basic of which is simply a reflection of the sounds that [[Bell (instrument)|bells]] can make, and the [[emotion]]s evoked from that sound. For example, "From the bells bells bells bells/Bells bells bells!" brings to mind the clamoring of myriad church bells. Several deeper interpretations exist as well. One is that the poem is a representation of [[life]] from the nimbleness of [[youth]] to the pain of age. Growing despair is emphasized alongside the growing frenzy in the tone of the poem.<ref>Silverman, Kenneth. ''Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance''. New York City: Harper Perennial, 1991. {{ISBN|0-06-092331-8}} p. 403</ref> Another is the passing of the seasons, from spring to winter. The passing of the seasons is often used as a [[metaphor]] for life itself. The poem also suggests a Poe theme of mourning over a lost wife, courted in sledge, married and then killed in a fire as the husband looks on. The tolling of the iron bells reflects the final madness of the grief-stricken husband.{{Citation needed|date = February 2016}}

The sounds of the verses, specifically the repetitive "''bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells'',", lie on a narrow line between sense and nonsense, causing a feeling of instability.<ref>Rosenheim, Shawn James. ''The Cryptographic Imagination: Secret Writing from Edgar Poe to the Internet''. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997. p. 125. {{ISBN|978-0-8018-5332-6}}</ref> Poe uses – and popularised – the word "tintinnabulation", apparentlyoften awrongly coinagethought ofto be his own coinage,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-tin1.htm|title=Tintinnabulation|work=World Wide Words|date=December 29, 2001}}</ref> based on the Latin word for "bell", ''tintinnabulum''.<ref>''tintinnabulation'', Oxford English Dictionary, Second edition, 1989; [http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/202330 online version], December 2011; accessed 09 January 2012. Earlier version first published in New English Dictionary, 1912.</ref> The series of "bells" echo the imagined sounds of the various bells, from the silver bells following the klip-klop of the horses, to the "dong, ding-dong" of the swinging golden and iron bells, to screeching "whee-aaah" of the brazen bells. The series are always four, followed by three, always beginning and ending on a stressed syllable. The meter changes to iambic in the lines with repeated "bells,", bringing the reader into their rhythm. Most of the poem is a more hurried [[trochaic tetrameter]].<ref>[http://www.shmoop.com/bells-poe/rhyme-form-meter.html Analysis: Form and Meter.]</ref>

The bells of which he writes are thought to be those he heard from [[Fordham University]] church's bell tower, since Poe resided in the same neighborhood as that university. He also frequently strolled about Fordham's campus conversing with both the students and the [[Jesuits]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Fordham: A History and Memoir|last=Schroth|first=Raymond A.|publisher=Fordham University Press|year=2008|isbn=9780823229772|location=New York|pages=22-2522–25}}</ref>

Richard Wilbur characterized “The"The Bells”Bells" as “altogether"altogether a tour ''de force''".<ref>Wibur, Richard, ''Poe The Laurel Poetry Series'', (New York, 1959), p. 37.</ref> Critics have analyzed the musical or sound of the poem as opposed to its literary meaning. A. E. DuBois in the "The Jazz Bells of Poe," ,places IIthe (December,emphasis 1940),on 230-244the musical quality of the poem which presages jazz and 20th century musical idioms.<ref>DuBois, A.E. "The Jazz Bells of Poe," ''College English'', II (December, 1940), 230-244.</ref> DuBois sees the poem as a dramatic song that is a precursor for [[Vachel Lindsay]]. DuBois makes comparisons to jazz music and places the poem in the style of musical and poetic "[[primativism]]" which was ahead of its time in the 1840s.

F. O. Matthiessen rejected the repetitive sounds employed and musical tone as “a"a case of onomatopoeia pushed to a point where it would hardly be possible or desirable to go again”again".<ref>Matthiessen, F.O., ''Literary History of the United StateStates'', (New York, 1948), I, 339.</ref> Edward H. Davidson, however, praised its use of repetitive sounds: "It has been rightly praised for its experimental and effective onomatopoeia; its theme is probably nothing more profound than the four ages of man".<ref>Davidson, Edward H. ''Selected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe'', (Boston, 1956), p. 498.</ref>

Poe biographer [[Jeffrey Meyers]] noted that "The Bells" is often criticized for sounding mechanical and forced.<ref>Meyers, Jeffrey. ''Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy''. (Cooper Square Press, 1992.), p. 223. {{ISBN|0-8154-1038-7}}</ref>

[[Sergei Rachmaninoff]] (1873–1943) composed a [[choral symphony]] ''[[The Bells (Rachmaninoff)|The Bells]]'', Op. 35, based on a Russian adaptation of the poem by [[Konstantin Balmont]]. The symphony follows classical [[sonata form]]: first movement, slow movement, scherzo, and finale, thus honoring the poem's four sections.<ref>[http://www.americansymphony.org/dialogues_extensions/99_2000season/1999_10_15/rachmaninoff.cfm AmericanSymphony.org] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070701205157/http://www.americansymphony.org/dialogues_extensions/99_2000season/1999_10_15/rachmaninoff.cfm |date=2007-07-01 }}</ref> (The work is sometimes performed in English, using not Poe's original, but a translation of Balmont's adaptation by Fanny S. Copeland.) The Scottish composer [[Hugh S. Roberton]] (1874–1947) published "Hear the Tolling of the Bells" (1909), "The Sledge Bells" (1909), and "Hear the Sledges with the Bells" (1919) based on Poe's poem.<ref>Sova, Dawn B. ''Edgar Allan Poe: A to Z''. New York: Checkmark Books, 2001. p. 212. {{ISBN|0-8160-4161-X}}</ref> [[Josef Holbrooke]] composed his "The Bells, Prelude, Op. 50" on Poe's poem, and American folksinger [[Phil Ochs]] composed a tune to the poem recorded on his 1964 album ''[[All the News That's Fit to Sing]]''.

[[Eric Woolfson]], musical partner to [[Alan Parsons]] in [[the Alan Parsons Project]], has written two albums based on the writings of Poe. His second, ''Poe: More Tales of Mystery and Imagination'', includes a song entitled "The Bells", for which he set Poe's words to music. This album was also the basis for a musical stage production that was performed in England, Austria, and other European countries. [[Pink Floyd]] have referenced the poem in the last verse of their song "[[Time (Pink Floyd song)|Time]]" on the album ''[[The Dark Side of the Moon]]'' (1973).{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}

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* {{Wikisource-inline|The_Works_of_the_Late_Edgar_Allan_Poe/Volume_2/The_Bells|The Bells}}