The Bells

by Edgar Allan Poe

"The Bells" is one of Poe's famous poems, in which Poe tries to make the bells sound

real.  He tries to make the sounds by using words instead of sound, which is really annoying when

you  read it, because he repeats things so often in the poem.  He uses words like shrieking and

twinkling.  In every stanza he talks about different bells, and what noises they make, and for what

occasion they are for.

In the first stanza he talks about sleigh bells and Christmas bells.  In this poem he uses the

words tinkling and jingling to represent the bells.  When he uses these words, it sets a happy and

jolly type of mood for the reader.  It starts the poem out in a warn and happy manner.

The second stanza has wedding bells in it.  These bells also bring about feelings of

happiness, but in a different way.  Although they have the same meaning of joy they clearly have

different sounds.  He also describes how they bring a sense of joy, and some what of a fortune, for

the future. 

In stanza three there are sounds and descriptions of alarm bells.  He uses the words

clanging, clashing, and roaring to give a sense of alarm.  He describes how the bells clamor and

clangor out of tune in order to send the message of alarm to those around it.

In the forth stanza there are bells that are rung for the diseased.  He says that the noises

they make are mainly moans, and groans, from their rusty iron throats.  This gives the feeling of

sadness and sorrow.  He also makes it seem like the bells are alive, and they want to be rung

making more people dead.  Which means that they are glad when death comes around.

I think that Poe repeated everything so that people get a sense of what really is happening.  

But I think, when he says things over, and over like the word Bells, it starts to get boring and

annoying to me.  Poe probably wrote about these different bells for all the moods he has had in his

life.   This poem was hard to understand, but good.  The words he used were pretty good.  His

choice of words went well with his poem.