132 lines
4.8 KiB
Plaintext
132 lines
4.8 KiB
Plaintext
1849
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THE BELLS
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by Edgar Allan Poe
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I
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Hear the sledges with the bells-
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Silver bells!
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What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
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How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
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In the icy air of night!
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While the stars that oversprinkle
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All the heavens, seem to twinkle
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With a crystalline delight;
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Keeping time, time, time,
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In a sort of Runic rhyme,
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To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
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From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
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Bells, bells, bells-
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From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.
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II
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Hear the mellow wedding bells,
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Golden bells!
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What a world of happiness their harmony foretells!
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Through the balmy air of night
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How they ring out their delight!
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From the molten-golden notes,
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And an in tune,
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What a liquid ditty floats
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To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats
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On the moon!
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Oh, from out the sounding cells,
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What a gush of euphony voluminously wells!
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How it swells!
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How it dwells
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On the Future! how it tells
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Of the rapture that impels
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To the swinging and the ringing
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Of the bells, bells, bells,
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Of the bells, bells, bells,bells,
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Bells, bells, bells-
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To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells!
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III
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Hear the loud alarum bells-
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Brazen bells!
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What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!
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In the startled ear of night
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How they scream out their affright!
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Too much horrified to speak,
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They can only shriek, shriek,
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Out of tune,
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In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire,
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In a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic fire,
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Leaping higher, higher, higher,
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With a desperate desire,
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And a resolute endeavor,
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Now- now to sit or never,
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By the side of the pale-faced moon.
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Oh, the bells, bells, bells!
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What a tale their terror tells
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Of Despair!
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How they clang, and clash, and roar!
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What a horror they outpour
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On the bosom of the palpitating air!
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Yet the ear it fully knows,
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By the twanging,
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And the clanging,
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How the danger ebbs and flows:
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Yet the ear distinctly tells,
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In the jangling,
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And the wrangling,
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How the danger sinks and swells,
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By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells-
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Of the bells-
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Of the bells, bells, bells,bells,
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Bells, bells, bells-
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In the clamor and the clangor of the bells!
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IV
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Hear the tolling of the bells-
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Iron Bells!
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What a world of solemn thought their monody compels!
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In the silence of the night,
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How we shiver with affright
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At the melancholy menace of their tone!
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For every sound that floats
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From the rust within their throats
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Is a groan.
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And the people- ah, the people-
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They that dwell up in the steeple,
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All Alone
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And who, tolling, tolling, tolling,
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In that muffled monotone,
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Feel a glory in so rolling
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On the human heart a stone-
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They are neither man nor woman-
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They are neither brute nor human-
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They are Ghouls:
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And their king it is who tolls;
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And he rolls, rolls, rolls,
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Rolls
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A paean from the bells!
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And his merry bosom swells
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With the paean of the bells!
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And he dances, and he yells;
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Keeping time, time, time,
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In a sort of Runic rhyme,
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To the paean of the bells-
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Of the bells:
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Keeping time, time, time,
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In a sort of Runic rhyme,
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To the throbbing of the bells-
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Of the bells, bells, bells-
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To the sobbing of the bells;
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Keeping time, time, time,
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As he knells, knells, knells,
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In a happy Runic rhyme,
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To the rolling of the bells-
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Of the bells, bells, bells:
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To the tolling of the bells,
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Of the bells, bells, bells, bells-
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Bells, bells, bells-
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To the moaning and the groaning of the bells.
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-THE END-
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