...
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.
I have always wondered what fury and disharmony brought together this poem. Do you think anyone interrupted him with asinine questions such as, "Honey, where is my beige whale bone corset?"
Thursday, May 17, 2007
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5 comments:
No, because he wrote it in the middle of the night under the influence of something better not described.
However, it remains a singular work of melodic genius.
the bells, bells, bells, bells, bells. help, posession by bells.
So you think that the blur of drugs muted the everyday going ons of his relatives? The smell of leek soup didn't waft upstairs into his conscience?
You know I dated a guy named Edgar once.
It was never proven that Eddie took drugs.
superb poem! i love it well well well - though i've never heard the allusion to his drugabuse b'fore
everyone sooner or later dates someone named edgar ... sad story really ...
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