1

“The Bells”, by Edgar Allan Poe

Upper ES / ELA

Poetry, Life Cycle, Death, Birth

Play various bell clips, and have students discuss what comes to mind when they hear each type of bell. Below are links to a couple of bells found on YouTube.

sleigh bells https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCvTPiKNvt4

wedding bells https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uj5aH1zk1WQ

fire alarm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcizmrkNcas

funeral bell https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKTIe6piDOI

Have the students number the sentences. Read the poem aloud to the students. Here is a link to a YouTube video where the poem is read aloud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m75-812-sj4

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Poe is an American poet and short story author from the 19th century. He is best known for his tales of horror.

Divide the class into 4 groups, assigning each group a section of the poem. Ask them to scan the section for unfamiliar vocabulary. As a whole class, discuss the identified words and provide a modern day synonym that will be more accessible to students.

Have the students read the poem out loud with a partner. Highlight the words that set the mood, or tone, for each section. Write one word or phrase in the margin for each section that best describes the mood.

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What is your favorite sentence or lines to read out loud? (round-robin

response)

Why? (spontaneous discussion)

How does the mood change over the course of the poem?

What line creates the most vivid imagery in your mind?

What line or section is the most confusing to you?

What patterns or purposes do you see in the repetition of phrases and/or

sentence structure?

How does Poe use the bells as a metaphor?

Think about one major event that has happened in your life. Hold up one

through four fingers to indicate which section of the poem that event would fall into.

If you feel comfortable, share your life event and why you categorized it as

you did.

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Play each bell sound clip again. Give students 1-2 minutes to write ideas after each sound. Write the following directions on the board: “As you listen to each sound, write down what ideas from our seminar discussion come to mind.”

Create a 4-panel drawing of each section of the poem.

Divide each panel into three parts. The top part will consist of a title and a graphic. Analyze each section of the poem to generate an appropriate title and graphic (other than a bell).

In the middle section draw and fully color an illustration representing your interpretation to that part of the poem.

In the bottom section create a caption for your illustration that expresses your personal interpretation and includes the mood you feel is being expressed within that section.

(LDC Task#: 14 )

Poe used bells as a metaphor to represent each section of the poem. As a class, brainstorm other options that could be used in place of the bells. For example, students have used seasons, different types of flowers, a candle, the progression of seed-sapling-tree-fallen tree, etc.

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Title/Graphic Section 2 Section 3 Section 4

Illustration of student interpretation

Caption

Students create a sketch (with words and/or images) of their ideas for their 4-panel drawing. Students will compose a caption that explains their interpretation of each section of the poem.

Students will use the following checklist to help their peers revise each section of the panel:

Is the title appropriate for the section of the poem?

Is the idea for the graphic appropriate for the section of the poem?

Caption: Are the ideas in the caption clear to the reader?

Do the images in the illustration support the ideas in the caption?

Use the following checklist to edit each section of the panel.

Is the title capitalized?

Are there spelling and or grammar errors to be corrected?

Display the 4-panel drawings publicly, such as on a bulletin board. Also display a copy of the poem with the student work.

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Sherri Bernier-Lucien

Providence Spring Elementary

7

The Bells

Edgar Allan Poe, 1809 - 1849

I.

Hear the sledges with the bells--

Silver bells!

What a world of merriment their melody foretells!

How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,

In the icy air of night!

While the stars that oversprinkle

All the heavens, seem to twinkle

With a crystalline delight;

Keeping time, time, time,

In a sort of Runic rhyme,

To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells

From the bells, bells, bells, bells,

Bells, bells, bells--

From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.

II.

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Hear the mellow wedding bells

Golden bells!

What a world of happiness their harmony foretells!

Through the balmy air of night

How they ring out their delight!

From the molten-golden notes,

And all in tune,

What a liquid ditty floats

To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats

On the moon!

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

To the swinging and the ringing

Of the bells, bells, bells,

Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,

Bells, bells, bells--

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To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells!

III.

Hear the loud alarum bells--

Brazen bells!

What 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,

And a resolute endeavor

Now--now to sit or never,

By the side of the pale-faced moon.

Oh, the bells, bells, bells!

What a tale their terror tells

Of Despair!

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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 twanging,

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 clangour of the bells!

IV.

Hear the tolling of the bells--

Iron bells!

What a world of solemn thought their monody compels!

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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 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,

Rolls

A pæan from the bells!

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And his merry bosom swells

With the pæan of the bells!

And he dances, and he yells ;

Keeping time, time, time,

In a sort of Runic rhyme,

To the pæan 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--

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To the moaning and the groaning of the bells.

Retrieved on July 6, 2016 from https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/bells