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 bells, bells, bells, bells, To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells! III. Hear the loud alarum bells- What a tale of terror now their turbulency tells ! How they scream out their affright! In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire, And a resolute endeavour What a tale their terror tells How they clang, and clash, and roar ! On the bosom of the palpitating air! Yet the ear it fully knows, And the clanging, How the danger ebbs and flows; 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, In the clamour and the clangour of the bells! IV. Hear the tolling of the 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 They are neither man nor woman— And their king it is who tolls; A pæan from the bells! Keeping time, time, time, To the sobbing of the bells; As he knells, knells, knells, Bells, bells, bells— To the moaning and the groaning of the bells. 1849. ULALUME. THE skies they were ashen and sober; In the misty mid region of Weir— Here once, through an alley Titanic, cypress, I roamed with my Soul- Our talk had been serious and sober, But our thoughts they were palsied and sere- For we knew not the month was October, We noted not the dim lake of Auber (Though once we had journeyed down here)— Remembered not the dank tarn of Auber, Nor the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir. And now, as the night was senescent Distinct with its duplicate horn. And I said " She is warmer than Dian: She has seen that the tears are not dry on These cheeks, where the worm never dies, To shine on us with her bright eyes— But Psyche, uplifting her finger, Said "Sadly this star I mistrust— Her pallor I strangely mistrust :Oh, hasten!-oh, let us not linger! Oh, fly!-let us fly !-for we must." |