SELECT READINGS. THE BELLS. I. HEAR the sledges with the bells— What a world of merriment their melody foretells! Keeping time, time, time, In a sort of Runic rhyme, To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells. II. Hear the mellow wedding-bells Golden bells! What a world of happiness their harmony foretells! B Through the balmy air of night What a liquid ditty floats To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats Oh, from out the sounding cells How it dwells On the future! how it tells Of the rapture that impels Of the bells, bells, bells, bells, Bells, bells, bells— To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells! III. Hear the loud alarum-bells Brazen bells! What a tale of terror now their turbulency tells! How they scream out their affright! They can only shriek! shriek! In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire, Leaping higher! higher! higher! And a resolute endeavour Now, now to sit or never, Oh, the bells, bells, bells! What a tale their terror tells How they clang, and clash, and roar ! On the bosom of the palpitating air!- 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, 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 ! In the silence of the night, How we shiver with affright At the melancholy menace of their tone! From the rust within their throats And the people-ah, the people— And who tolling, tolling, tolling,— Feel a glory in so rolling On the human heart a stone, And their king it is who tolls; Rolls A pæan from the bells; Keeping time, time, time, In a sort of Runic rhyme, To the throbbing of the bells |