Edgar Allan Poe

The Bells

Moaning vs. merriment

The poem opens with 'merriment' and closes with 'moaning and groaning.' The final line inverts the first section's joy into death-sound. The structure is a complete life cycle.

THE BELLS.
Hear the sledges with the bells—
Silver bells!

Metal progression

Silver (joy), Gold (love), Brass (terror), Iron (death). Each section's bell metal tracks a life arc. The metals get heavier and darker as the poem moves toward mortality.

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;

Time-keeping obsession

'Keeping time, time, time' appears in Sections I and IV. In I, it's synchronized joy. In IV, it's the ghoul-king's compulsive dance with death. Same phrase, opposite meaning.

Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,

Runic rhyme

Runes suggest ancient, magical language. Poe uses this phrase in all four sections, marking each bell-type as having its own occult rhythm. Notice it appears unchanged—he's building a ritual structure.

Tintinabulation

Poe's invented word (from Latin 'tintinnabulum,' a tinkling bell). He's not just describing sound—he's creating it through the word itself, which mimics the bell's repetition.

To the tintinabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells—

Repetition acceleration

Each section increases the number of repeated words. Section I: 'bells, bells, bells—' (3). Section IV: 'rolls, rolls, rolls, / Rolls' (4 lines). The obsessive repetition builds momentum toward death.

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 all in tune,

Liquid vs. shriek

Section II uses 'liquid ditty' and flowing sounds (l, m, n). Section III shifts to hard consonants: 'shriek, shriek,' 'clang, clash, roar.' Sound mirrors meaning.

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,

Repetition acceleration

Each section increases the number of repeated words. Section I: 'bells, bells, bells—' (3). Section IV: 'rolls, rolls, rolls, / Rolls' (4 lines). The obsessive repetition builds momentum toward death.

Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,

Repetition acceleration

Each section increases the number of repeated words. Section I: 'bells, bells, bells—' (3). Section IV: 'rolls, rolls, rolls, / Rolls' (4 lines). The obsessive repetition builds momentum toward death.

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,

Fire as deaf

The fire is personified but explicitly 'deaf'—it won't listen to the bells' pleas. This makes the bells' alarm futile, amplifying the panic.

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,

Repetition acceleration

Each section increases the number of repeated words. Section I: 'bells, bells, bells—' (3). Section IV: 'rolls, rolls, rolls, / Rolls' (4 lines). The obsessive repetition builds momentum toward death.

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,

Silence before tolling

Section IV begins 'In the silence of the night'—the only section that starts with quiet. This silence makes the tolling more ominous. Death is announced in the absence of other sound.

How we shiver with affright
At the melancholy menace of their tone!

Rust and groans

'Rust within their throats'—the iron bells are decaying, and each sound is 'a groan.' The bell itself is dying as it announces death. Material decay mirrors the message.

For every sound that floats
From the rust within their throats

Rust and groans

'Rust within their throats'—the iron bells are decaying, and each sound is 'a groan.' The bell itself is dying as it announces death. Material decay mirrors the message.

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—

Ghouls and bell-ringers

In Section IV, the bell-tollers transform into 'neither man nor woman / neither brute nor human—They are Ghouls.' Death has made them inhuman. The bell-ringer becomes the king of death itself.

They are Ghouls:
And their king it is who tolls;
And he rolls, rolls, rolls,
Rolls
A pæan from the bells!

Pæan meaning

A pæan is a song of praise or triumph. The ghoul-king celebrates death with 'merry bosom'—he's joyful about tolling the death knell. The word choice makes death's victory grotesque.

And his merry bosom swells
With the pæan of the bells!
And he dances, and he yells;

Time-keeping obsession

'Keeping time, time, time' appears in Sections I and IV. In I, it's synchronized joy. In IV, it's the ghoul-king's compulsive dance with death. Same phrase, opposite meaning.

Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,

Runic rhyme

Runes suggest ancient, magical language. Poe uses this phrase in all four sections, marking each bell-type as having its own occult rhythm. Notice it appears unchanged—he's building a ritual structure.

To the pæan of the bells—
Of the bells:

Time-keeping obsession

'Keeping time, time, time' appears in Sections I and IV. In I, it's synchronized joy. In IV, it's the ghoul-king's compulsive dance with death. Same phrase, opposite meaning.

Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,

Runic rhyme

Runes suggest ancient, magical language. Poe uses this phrase in all four sections, marking each bell-type as having its own occult rhythm. Notice it appears unchanged—he's building a ritual structure.

To the throbbing of the bells—
Of the bells, bells, bells—
To the sobbing of the bells;

Time-keeping obsession

'Keeping time, time, time' appears in Sections I and IV. In I, it's synchronized joy. In IV, it's the ghoul-king's compulsive dance with death. Same phrase, opposite meaning.

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—

Repetition acceleration

Each section increases the number of repeated words. Section I: 'bells, bells, bells—' (3). Section IV: 'rolls, rolls, rolls, / Rolls' (4 lines). The obsessive repetition builds momentum toward death.

Repetition acceleration

Each section increases the number of repeated words. Section I: 'bells, bells, bells—' (3). Section IV: 'rolls, rolls, rolls, / Rolls' (4 lines). The obsessive repetition builds momentum toward death.

Bells, bells, bells—
To the moaning and the groaning of the bells.

Moaning vs. merriment

The poem opens with 'merriment' and closes with 'moaning and groaning.' The final line inverts the first section's joy into death-sound. The structure is a complete life cycle.

Source Wikipedia Poetry Foundation

Reading Notes

Life as a Four-Bell Journey

The Bells is structured as a life progression marked by four types of bells, each with its own metal, color, and emotional register. Section I (silver bells) celebrates youth and merriment; Section II (golden bells) celebrates marriage and romantic future; Section III (brazen bells) depicts a fire alarm—crisis and terror; Section IV (iron bells) moves into death and the grave. This isn't abstract—Poe is mapping a complete human life from birth/childhood through love, catastrophe, and death.

The metal itself tracks the descent. Silver is precious and light; gold is romantic; brass is harsh and industrial; iron is heavy, rusted, and associated with coffins and tombs. By the final section, the bells have become 'muffled' and the sound is a 'groan'—not a ringing anymore, but a death-rattle. The poem's structure forces you to hear this progression: you can't skip ahead. You move through time as the bells move you through life.

Sound as the Poem's Real Subject

Poe doesn't just describe bells—he makes you hear them through onomatopoeia, repetition, and rhythm. In Section I, the short i-sounds ('tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,' 'silver,' 'crystalline') create brightness. In Section III, the hard c's and k's ('clang, clash, clamor, clangor') make the fire-alarm physically harsh. In Section IV, the m's and o's ('moaning, groaning, muffled monotone') sound like funeral dirges.

Notice also that repetition accelerates. Early sections repeat words in manageable clusters; by Section IV, Poe repeats 'bells' and 'rolls' obsessively—'rolls, rolls, rolls, / Rolls'—mimicking the bell-ringer's compulsive tolling and suggesting that death, once started, cannot be stopped. The poem's form enacts its meaning: the more you read, the more trapped you become in the rhythm, just as the tolling bells trap the living in their sound. This is why The Bells works as performance poetry—it's meant to be heard aloud, where the sonic patterns do their work on your ear and nerves.