The Bells (cont.)
III
Hear the loud alarum bells--
Brazen bells!
What tale of he 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-face 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
In the bosom of the palpitating air!
Yet the ear, it fully knows,
By the twanging
And the clanging,
How the danger ebbs and flows:--
Yes, 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 meaning of the tone!
For every sound that floats
From the rust within their throats
Is a groan.
And the peopl--ah, the people
They that swell 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:--
As he rolls, rolls, rolls, rolls,
A Paean from the bells!
And his merry bosom sweels
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.
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