Lio by Mark Tatulli for April 22, 2007

Hear the tolling of the bells —Iron bells !

What a world of solemn thought their monody compels ! 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 ! 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 — To the moaning and the groaning of the bells.-Poe