Blogger #1- Joseph Afflitto- Period 7- 4/15/2021- Day C

 Aim: How does Edgar Allan Poe’s, “The Bells” convey and reinforce the meaning of the life cycle through his choice of poetic sound devices?

This was an in-person class with four students including myself, being Tempest Deschamps, Loezee Liu, Eric Lu, and I. 

We first were asked to discuss the amount of bells we were able to name within a given time-limit. Overall, we named five bells, being:

• Gongs

• School Bells

• Church Bells

• Clock Bells

• Jingle Bells

After finishing the activity, each person received ten points for their team.

Next, we did a spirit-reading of an excerpt called “Oh Woe Is Poe”, which described a short part of Poe’s life and the interesting story of his death. This led to a discussion on what we read on his death and the circumstances of his life. 

Followed by this, we were introduced to six new terms that were related to poetry and the topics we discussed later. These terms were:

• Cacophony: Cacophony comes from the Greek word meaning, “bad sound.”  Or Involving or producing a harsh, discordant mixture of sounds.

• Euphonious: involving sounds that are soothing or pleasant to the ear.  It is the opposite of cacophony.

• Alliteration: A stylistic device in which consecutive words or words that occur close together in a series all begin with the same first consonant letter or sound

• Onomatopoeia: A word which imitates the natural sound of a thing.

• Repetition: Repeating words, phrases, lines, or stanzas. Repetition is used to emphasize a feeling or idea, create rhythm, and/or develop a sense of urgency

• Rhyme: a repetition of similar sounds in two or more words (especially common at the ends of words).  Rhyme is pleasing the ear and also lends a sense of rhythm and order to the language.

The rest of the lesson consisted of listening to a reading of and discussion of the poem “The Bells” by Edgar Allan Poe. 

After reading the poem, the four of us were tasked with filling in a table discussing the three stanzas. We collectively created this table:

Type of Bell What is this bell used for? (denotation) What are associations or feelings connected with this type of bell? (connotation)	Identify Sound Devices and Literary Devices Used  (Provide textual examples) Take Note of: Alliteration, repetition, onomatopoeia, euphony, cacophony, diction, figurative language etc.	Analyze the Effect: What is the effect of Poe’s use of these specific sound devices? What is the overall mood expressed in this stanza? (How do the sound devices contribute to this?)
Stanza 1: Silver Bells This bell is used to guide the sleighs riding through the night.	There is a use of alliteration and euphony mostly within these lines. These two devices are both demonstrated through the repetition of the “t” sounds in the line “How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle”.	The textual details create a feeling of calmness with the observation of beauty. The sound devices are all light and bright so it brings the mood to a calm state, and the references to the stars bring out the beauty of the bells.
Stanza 2: Golden Bells The bell is used to celebrate weddings and other happy occasions	Euphony and repetition is both used within the stanza in order to create the mood and feel of the stanza. The repetition is shown mostly through the lines “How it swells!How it dwells” and the lines “Of the bells, bells, bells,Of the bells, bells, bells,bells”. And the euphony is shown through the line “out the sounding cells/What a gush of euphony voluminously wells”.	The textual details pull together to make an interesting combination of cheerfulness with the beginning of the stanza followed by the repetition creating an uneasy and eerie mood that clashes.
Stanza 3: Brazen Bells These bells are made to warn people of incoming danger.	There is a use of repetition and cacophony to create the mood of the stanza. The line “What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells” displays this use of the devices best as it incorporates the cacophony of the ‘T’ sounds while also repeating these sounds multiple times within the line.	The devices used create an uneasy tone of fear from the ringing of the brazen bells. The brazen bells bring about fear as they warn of incoming attacks, so the mood created by the devices is important in making readers recognize this fact.
Stanza 4: Iron Bells These bells are rung by the church.	There is a mix of euphony and cacophony within the  poem that creates an interesting tug between a an eerie and ghostly mood and a joyful mood. The lines “And he dances, and he yells; Keeping time, time, time” and “At the melancholy menace of their tone!” demonstrate this shift in mood.	The cacophony is mostly used when describing the king of ghouls dancing along with the bells, and the euphony is mostly used to describe the negative associations with the ringing of the bells. This directly creates the shift back and forth in mood.

 

The class then ended, leaving us with the task of answering four questions independently, which I answered like this:

1. Analyze the first two stanzas. How do they compare, in terms of similarity?

The first two stanzas both view the bells in a positive light by praising their sound and what they symbolize in life.

2. Now, compare the bells in stanzas 1 and 2 with the bells in stanzas 3 and 4. How does Poe’s mood shift in his poem? 

There is a major shift between the sets of stanzas as it begins with a the positive light in the first two stanzas that changes into a negative and eerie mood in the following two stanzas.

3. How does Poe use sound devices to imitate the sound of bells?

1. Compile a list of the devices you believe he used.

Euphony, Cacophony, Rhyme, Personification, Repetition, Onomatopoeia, Metaphor, and Alliteration

4. This poem is as much about sound as it is about meaning.

1. Why do you think Poe places a heavy emphasis on sound in this poem? 

2. What message does it help to express?

How is this poem symbolically a metaphor for life?The use of sounds through descriptions of bells are extremely important in creating the message of the poem. The message intended to display is the display of aging through the discussion of the bells. The first bell represents childhood, where the world looks bright and interesting. The next bell is young adulthood, where marriage most commonly takes place. The third stanza discusses aging into an older adult, where aging becomes more of a threat. Finally, the last stanza describes the incoming threat of death, being a sad end but the little light from the unknown of what comes after.

The answering of these questions concluded the lesson completely. 

Reflection: Overall, the lesson expanded upon the topic of figurative devices and their effect in a way that opened more types of devices, specifically euphony and cacophony, to our tools when writing poetry. The discussion of Edgar Allan Poe and the reading was very enjoyable as I enjoy his work, and learning more about what compelled him to create this poem helps give me my own inspiration for my poetry in this class.