Yarbrough’s Sample
“Hear the loud alarum bells -
Brazen bells!
What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!”
I am the bronze bell from the poem “The Bells.” Throughout the poem, Edgar Allan Poe discusses different kinds of bells and what each bell is used for. Poe begins by talking about silver sleigh bells which he describes as being merry and happy. In this stanza, Poe uses words such as tintinnabulation and jingling to describe the sound that the bells make, using them as onomatopoeia. In the second stanza, Poe describes golden wedding bells, which are also very happy. Though they are also joyful, they seem to be a little more majestic than the silver bells from the first stanza. Poe uses phrases like “molten golden notes” to describe the sound of these grand bells. In my own stanza, the third stanza, the tone and mood of the poem changes. Whereas the first two stanzas were happy, my stanza has a feeling of being frantic, as it focuses on an emergency bell calling people to put out a fire. My sound is described as shrieking and being turbulent. I cause despair as I warn of the “danger that ebbs and flows.” Poe used onomatopoeia again to describe my sound with words such as “shriek, shriek,” “clamor” and “clanging.” Though I think I am a pretty important bell, there is still another bell that follows me. The last bell that Poe describes is the melancholy iron bell. The iron bell rings with a “muffled monotone” to signal that someone has just died. In the stanza, Poe also explains about the ghoulish figures who ring the bell. They seem almost happy to be ringing out the death toll.
Throughout the poem, Poe uses several literary devices besides onomatopoeia and tone and mood. Poe actually wrote this poem so that is visually representative of the subject. Each stanza Poe included more information making the stanzas longer and longer. The first stanza was very short, just as the silver bells are very small. The second stanza is a bit larger, as the wedding bells are bigger. My stanza is even bigger, since I am bigger than both of the two previous bells. However, the largest stanza of them all is the fourth stanza, since the iron bells are the biggest bells of all.
To help with rhythm, Poe used rhyme, repetition and alliteration. All three of these things helped to establish a beat pattern that is very distinct to the poem. Any example of repetition was when each stanza included a couple of lines that just said, “bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells.” He even included this in my very own stanza!
One of the major themes of this poem is that life keeps going. Throughout the poem, and Poe’s description of the different bells, he really focuses on a different time in a person’s life, which is also an example of symbolism. During the stanza about the silver bells is when a person is young, happy and carefree. Then they generally get married and have the golden wedding bells ringing. Later in life, there is usually some crisis that comes up, which is represented by myself, the bronze alarm bell. And then, as is the case with many Poe stories and poems, eventually everyone dies, which is the reason for the iron bells.
There are probably quite a few reasons why Poe wrote this poem, but somehow I bet that a lot of it had to do with everything that happened in his life. Poe started his life fairly happy, like the silver bells, especially when he met Virginia Clem. Then he and Virginia got married, which would be the golden bells. After they were married a few years, Virginia contracted tuberculosis, which happened to be a disease that many people Poe loved had died from. Virginia’s illness, and Poe’s reaction to the illness is represented by me and the frantic crisis that had to be faced. After a year or so of being sick, Virginia finally died, which was represented by the death bells in the fourth stanza.
Yarbrough’s Sample