An Analysis of Edgar Allan Poe's "the Bells"

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Like all other literary devices in "The Bells," Poe’s tone and diction follows a joyous to deathly pattern as the poem progresses. In the opening stanza both are full of delight and innocent merriment. Words like “tintinnabulation” (I, 11) ,“crystalline” (I, 8) and “tinkle” (I, 4) describe the sound of bells and support the delightful tone at the beginning of the poem. As we move forward, the bells now “chime" (II, 21) “molten-golden notes"(II, 6) as they "swing and ring”(II, 17), declaring the commencement of a beautiful and joyous harmony. Poe couldn’t allow the happiness to last forever, and the third stanza embarks on its path into darkness. The merry tone is replaced with one of alarm and panic. The bells now "shriek"(III, 7) instead of “rhyme”(II, 21). They "scream"(III, 5) and “clang” (III, 19) and “clash”(III, 19) and “roar” (III, 19)“in the anger of the bells”(III, 30-31). In the fourth stanza the poem finally begins to sound like one written by its creator. The bells announce the reign of Death. They "moan and groan” (IV, 44) as they are rung by ghouls that are “neither brute nor human”(IV, 18) resonating upon the death of all that is good.

Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Bells” is one that tells the tale of life. It describes the unpleasant truths about time. The beginning of the poem resembles a time of joy and harmony, but as time goes on disaster strikes and humanity is left with a “heart a stone”. A lesson to be learned from Poe is that things do not last forever. One must learn to live life as it comes because the bells of our lives will not always be silver or gold. There will come a time in our lives when we’ll hear both iron and brazen bells. And time will go on. It always does.

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