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|AdditionalRemaining stanzaspages 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.

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", often wrongly thought to 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=22–25}}</ref>

[[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}}