The Bells

I Hear the sledges with the bells-- Silver bells! 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; Keeping time, time, time In a sort of Runic rhyme To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells From the bells, bells, bells, bells, Bells, bells, bells-- 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 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 Of the bells, bells, bells, bells Bells, bells, bells-- To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells! III Hear the loud alarum bells-- Brazen bells! What 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 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 Bells, bells, bells-- In the clamour and the clangour 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 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 Rolls A pæan from the bells! And his merry bosom swells With the pæan of the bells! And he dances, and he yells ; Keeping time, time, time In a sort of Runic rhyme To the pæan 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.