From the molten-golden notes, And all in tune, What a liquid ditty floats To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats 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 20 25 30 To the swinging and the ringing Of the bells, bells, bells, bells, Bells, bells, bells To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells! Hear the loud alarum bells Brazen bells! What a 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 Now-now to sit or never And a resolute endeavour How the danger ebbs and flows; Yet the ear distinctly tells, 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 clamor and the clangor of the bells! 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 menace 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 A pæan from the bells! With the pæan of the bells, Keeping time, time, time, 90 95 Keeping time, time, time, To the sobbing of the bells; As he knells, knells, knells, To the rolling of the bells, To the moaning and the groaning of the bells. 1848-49. 1849. ANNABEL LEE It was many and many a year ago, That a maiden there lived whom you may know And this maiden she lived with no other thought I was a child and she was a child, In this kingdom by the sea; But we loved with a love that was more than love I and my ANNABEL LEE— With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven And this was the reason that, long ago, In this kingdom by the sea, A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling To shut her up in a sepulchre In this kingdom by the sea. ΙΟ 15 20 1849. The angels, not half so happy in heaven, Yes! that was the reason (as all men know, In this kingdom by the sea) That the wind came out of the cloud by night, 25 But our love it was stronger by far than the love Of many far wiser than we; And neither the angels in heaven above, Nor the demons down under the sea, Can ever dissever my soul from the soul Of the beautiful ANNABEL LEE: For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful ANNABEL LEE; And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes Of the beautiful ANNABEL LEE; And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side In the sepulchre there by the sea, In her tomb by the sounding sea. 30 35 40 1849. ELDORADO Gaily bedight, A gallant knight, In sunshine and in shadow, Had journeyed long, Singing a song, In search of Eldorado. But he grew old— This knight so bold, And o'er his heart a shadow Fell as he found No spot of ground That looked like Eldorado. 5 ΤΟ And, as his strength "Where can it be- "Over the Mountains Of the Moon, Down the Valley of the Shadow, Ride, boldly ride," The shade replied, "If you seek for Eldorado!" 1849. HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW BURIAL OF THE MINNISINK On sunny slope and beechen swell, At sunset, in its golden leaves. 15 20 5 |