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 tw.a.n.ging,
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 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, 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 m.u.f.fled 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 A paean from the bells!
And his merry bosom swells With the paean of the bells!
And he dances, and he yells; Keeping time, time, time, In a sort of Runic rhyme, To the paean 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.
end.