{
 "id": "edgar-allan-poe/the-bells",
 "title": "The Bells",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Edgar Allan Poe",
 "poet_slug": "edgar-allan-poe",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poetry",
 "book_slug": null,
 "book_kind": "compilation",
 "sequence": null,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1849,
  "venue": "Sartain's Union Magazine (November 1849)",
  "note": "Published after Poe's death, though the November issue was available by mid-October 1849. A much shorter early version, from a manuscript Poe had sent about a year earlier, was printed in the same magazine's December 1849 issue.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://www.eapoe.org/works/info/pp092.htm"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/edgar-allan-poe_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2151",
   "https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/An_Acrostic",
   "https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Elizabeth_(Poe)",
   "https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Serenade_(Poe)",
   "https://archive.org/details/worksedgarallan00unkngoog",
   "https://archive.org/details/cu31924019520810",
   "https://archive.org/details/jstor-2915307"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-12",
  "corrections": [
   {
    "line": null,
    "was": "The Bells42",
    "now": "The Bells",
    "why": "A Standard Ebooks endnote marker (<a epub:type=\"noteref\">) carried into the text by extraction; not present on the printed page.",
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    "date": "2026-08-12",
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 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 113,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 4,
  "longest_line_chars": 58,
  "max_indent": 7
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 "parts": [
  {
   "ordinal": "I",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    0,
    1
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "II",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    1,
    2
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "III",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    2,
    3
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "IV",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
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   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Hear the sledges with the bells⁠—",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Silver bells!",
    "indent": 6
   },
   {
    "text": "What a world of merriment their melody foretells!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "In the icy air of night!",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "While the stars, that oversprinkle",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "All the heavens, seem to twinkle",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "With a crystalline delight;",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "Keeping time, time, time,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "In a sort of Runic rhyme,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From the bells, bells, bells, bells,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Bells, bells, bells⁠—",
    "indent": 6
   },
   {
    "text": "From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Hear the mellow wedding bells",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Golden bells!",
    "indent": 6
   },
   {
    "text": "What a world of happiness their harmony foretells!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through the balmy air of night",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "How they ring out their delight!",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "From the molten golden-notes,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "And all in tune,",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "What a liquid ditty floats",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On the moon!",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "Oh, from out the sounding cells,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "What a gush of euphony voluminously wells!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How it swells!",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "How it dwells",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "On the future! how it tells",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the rapture that impels",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "To the swinging and the ringing",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the bells, bells, bells,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Bells, bells, bells⁠—",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Hear the loud alarum bells⁠—",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Brazen bells!",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "What a tale of terror now their turbulency tells!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the startled ear of night",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "How they scream out their affright!",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Too much horrified to speak,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "They can only shriek, shriek,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Out of tune,",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic fire,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Leaping higher, higher, higher,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "With a desperate desire,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "And a resolute endeavor",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Now⁠—now to sit or never,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "By the side of the pale-faced moon.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Oh, the bells, bells, bells!",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "What a tale their terror tells",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Despair!",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "How they clang, and clash, and roar!",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "What a horror they outpour",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "On the bosom of the palpitating air!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet the ear it fully knows,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "By the twanging,",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "And the clanging,",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "How the danger ebbs and flows;",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet the ear distinctly tells,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "In the jangling,",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "And the wrangling,",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "How the danger sinks and swells,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the bells⁠—",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Bells, bells, bells⁠—",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "In the clamor and the clangor of the bells!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Hear the tolling of the bells⁠—",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Iron bells!",
    "indent": 6
   },
   {
    "text": "What a world of solemn thought their monody compels!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the silence of the night,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "How we shiver with affright",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "At the melancholy meaning of their tone!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For every sound that floats",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "From the rust within their throats",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Is a groan.",
    "indent": 6
   },
   {
    "text": "And the people⁠—ah, the people⁠—",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "They that dwell up in the steeple,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "All alone,",
    "indent": 6
   },
   {
    "text": "And who, tolling, tolling, tolling,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "In that muffled monotone,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Feel a glory in so rolling",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "On the human heart a stone⁠—",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "They are neither man nor woman⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "They are neither brute nor human⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "They are Ghouls:",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "And their king it is who tolls;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And he rolls, rolls, rolls,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Rolls",
    "indent": 7
   },
   {
    "text": "A paean from the bells!",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "And his merry bosom swells",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "With the paean of the bells!",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "And he dances, and he yells;",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Keeping time, time, time,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "In a sort of Runic rhyme,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "To the paean of the bells⁠—",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the bells:",
    "indent": 6
   },
   {
    "text": "Keeping time, time, time,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "In a sort of Runic rhyme,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "To the throbbing of the bells⁠—",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the bells, bells, bells⁠—",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "To the sobbing of the bells;",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Keeping time, time, time,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "As he knells, knells, knells,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "In a happy Runic rhyme,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "To the rolling of the bells⁠—",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the bells, bells, bells⁠—",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "To the tolling of the bells,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Bells, bells, bells⁠—",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "To the moaning and the groaning of the bells.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}