Commentary on "The Bells" by Edgar Allan Poe

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The Bells

Edgar Allen Poe

Poetic Commentary

This poem, "The Bells" by Edgar Allen Poe describes a common object in the everyday life, but brings out the meaning behind the symbol of a bell. Poe reveals the different dispositions of the bells including the silver bells, golden bells, brazen bells, and iron bells. The plot in this poem is not straightforward in the four stanzas written but rather inducing the sentiment of each bell through lines of imagery and musical devices. Poe writes that the silver bells show a "world of merriment" with their small "tinkle." The golden bells are "the mellow wedding bells" and that "their harmony foretells...a world of happiness." Poe shows that the brazen bells signal "a tale of terror" and "scream out their affright." The iron bells have a "melancholy menace [in] their tone." In all of these stanzas, Poe incorporates musical and sound devices as well as auditory and visual imagery.

Poe uses a variety of techniques, including alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia, and rhyming. He also has many similes and examples of personification. In the first stanza, Poe uses onomatopoeia constantly, such as the word "tinkle." These words of onomatopoeia often rhyme with other words such as "oversprinkle" and "twinkle." The first stanza is where the reader first comes upon the line "in a sort of Runic rhyme." Runic has a double meaning, one which means an old-fashioned poetry method written after the Runic alphabet. The other means an undistinguishable and confusing written piece. The second stanza is longer and has auditory imagery throughout. "What a gush of euphony voluminously wells!" These lines have internal rhyming with words such as "euphony" and "voluminously. Assonance is present with words such as "molten-golden." These two stanzas have an overall happy tune, the first of holidays and merriment while the second of marriage and happiness.

Tone changes rapidly as Poe describes the third type of bell, bringing on the alarum and terror of brazen bells. In this third stanza, Poe has the usual onomatopoeia along with consonance and internal rhyme. "With a desperate desire, And a resolute endeavor" the brazen bells warn people of the danger and horror that is approaching. That line also has consonance as well as a significance of brazen bells. The last stanza also has the same mournful mood and now a solemn tone of the bells. The last stanza uses a lot of end rhyme; almost all of the lines have end rhymes and usually internal rhyme.

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