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?
DO NOW:
For the Do Now, we had a team challenge. The team challenge was to create a list of ALL the kinds/types of bells we have heard of. We would have 2 MINUTES to work with our teammates to come up with the most amount of bells we could think of. One of our classmates’ group thought of 13 types. Some of which were church bells, bicycle bells, door bells, alarm clock bells, bell peppers, etc.
Oh Woe is Poe! PDF:
We were to read a story on “Oh Woe is Poe!” by Edgar Allen Poe. After we finish reading this aloud, we will have a whole class discussion about it.
Poetic Sound Devices:
They are Musical or Sound Devices. It helps convey and reinforce meaning or experience through the usage of sound.
Some vocabulary/terms that we have been given to help us with our understanding their Edgar Allan Poe’s poems are
Cacophony: Cacophony is a word that comes from the Greek word meaning “bad sound.”
Involving or producing a harsh, discordant mixture of sounds. (Consider the noises
you may hear on a crowded city street: cars honking, people yelling, dogs barking)
Explosive Consonants: (k, t, g, d, p, b, q, c, x, ch-, sh-, etc.)
Hissing Sounds: (ch-, sh, and s)
Example: He is a rotten, dirty, terrible, trudging, stupid dude!
Cacophony can be used when trying to convey dark feelings or thoughts, harsh or loud noises, chaos, violence or fear.
Euphonious: Involves sounds that are soothing or pleasent to the ear. It is the OPPOSITE OF
CACOPHONY.
- It includes all vowels
- It has harmonious consonants, such as (l, m, n, r, and softer f and v, sounds)
- It uses soft consonants or semi-vowels such as (w, s, y and th or wh) extensively
to create more pleasant sounds
Example: “While the stars that oversprinkle all the heavens seem to twinkle” -Edgar Allen Poe
- Euphony is used when trying to make language sound beautiful and melodic. If a writer wants to describe something into an attractive, pleasant, or beautiful sound, this is one of the best ways of making the language sound harmonious.
TEAM WORK:
As a team, we will either highlight or underline words that are cacophonous in the next two examples.
“Beware the jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!” (“The Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll)
The words my team highlighted or underlined was “Beware,” “Jabberwock,” “jaws,” “bite,” “claws,” and “catch.” These words represented fear or violence which caught our eye.
“I gave him a description of cannons, culverins, muskets, carabines, pistols, bullets, power, swords, bayonets, battles, sieges, retreats, attacks, undermines, countermines, bombardments…” (Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift)
In this example, we highlighted or underlined “cannons,” “culverins,” “muskets,” “carabins,” “pistols,” “bullets,” “powder,” “swords,” “bayonets,” “battles,” “sieges,” “retreats,” “attacks,” “undermines,” “countermines,” and “bombardments.” These words represent violence or chao which would have a cacophony representation.
As a team, we will either highlight or underline words that are euphonious in the next two examples.
“Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness” (Ode to Autumn” by John Keats)
The words my team and I highlighted were “Season,” “mist,” “mellow” and “fruitfulness.” We highlighted these words because they give off a pleasant or attractive feeling when reading this sentence.
“While the stars that oversprinkle/All of heavens seem to twinkle” (“The Bells” by Edgar Allan Poe
In this example, what we highlighted was “While,” “stars,” “oversprinkle,” “heavens,” and “twinkle.” These words also give off a delightful feeling.
Some more vocabulary words for Poetic Sound Devices are:
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
Example: Jackrabbits jump and jiggle jauntily
Red Room Poetry Object Poetic Device #1: Alliteration [2:00]
Onomatopoeia: A word that imitates the natural sound of a thing
Example: The buzzing bee flew by
Example: The rusting leaves kept me awake
Red Room Poetry Object Poetic Device #4: Onomatopoeia [2:36]
Repetition: Repeating words, phrases, line, or stanzas. Repetition is used to emphasize a feeling
or idea, create rhythm, and/or develop a sense of urgency
Example: Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow
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
Perfect Rhyme: occurs when stressed syllables of the words, along with all subsequent
syllables, share identical sounds (example: “pencil” and “stencil”)
Imperfect Rhyme or “Slant Rhyme”: Involves the repetition of similar sounds that are not
quite as precise as perfect rhyme (example:
“uptown” and “frown”)
The pleasure of poetic pattern - David Silverstein [4:46
“The Bells” By Edgar Allan Poe (YouTube)
I.
Hear the sledges with the bells—
Silver bells!
What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
In the icy air of night!
While the stars that oversprinkle
All the heavens, seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells—
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!
Through the balmy air of night
How they ring out their delight!
From the molten-golden notes,
And all in tune,
What a liquid ditty floats
To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats
On the moon!
Oh, from out the sounding cells,
What a gush of euphony voluminously wells!
How it swells!
How it dwells
On the Future! how it tells
Of the rapture that impels
To the swinging and the ringing
Of the bells, bells, bells,
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!
In the startled ear of night
How they scream out their affright!
Too much horrified to speak,
They can only shriek, shriek,
Out of tune,
In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire,
In a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic fire,
Leaping higher, higher, higher,
With a desperate desire,
And a resolute endeavor,
Now- now to sit or never,
By the side of the pale-faced moon.
Oh, the bells, bells, bells!
What a tale their terror tells
Of Despair!
III.--Cont’d
How they clang, and clash, and roar!
What a horror they outpour
On the bosom of the palpitating air!
Yet the ear it fully knows,
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,
Bells, bells, bells-
In the clamor and the clangor 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!
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
IV.--Cont’d
A pæan from the bells!
And his merry bosom swells
With the paean of the bells!
And he dances, and he yells;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the paean 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.
ANALYSIS OF POETRY
With our team, we will analyze “The Bells,” by Edgar Allam Poe. We will identify which bell is being used in each stanza and the feelings behind it, the sound and literary devices that are being used, (for example: alliteration, cacophony, euphony, etc.) and then fully 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?)
For stanza one: Silver Bells, the type of bell we said was being used would be birthday bells or baby bells. We can tell that it gives us a happiness feeling when they say “What a world of merriment their melody foretells,” or “All the heavens seem to twinkle.” Merriment, Melody, Heavens and twinkle are some euphony words. Some sound/literary devices used were rhymes, repetition, and euphon. What we know about this is that this stanza is about happiness and joy of child life. We can understand that this may be the start of a new life and the baby bells will represent that they are delighted.
For stanza four, Iron Bells, the type of bell we said was being used would be funeral bells. We can tell that this is a dark and gloomy time for them when they say “What a world of solemn thought their monody compels” or “At the melancholy menace of their tone!” Solemn and melancholy represent an expressive sadness or depression. Some sound/literary devices being used would be rhymes, repetition and cacophony and also onomatopoeia. We can analyze that this stanza can be about being afraid to die or death. We understand that someone has passed away and that they are hearing funeral bells.
TEAM GROUP WORK
When answering the questions, we must rephrase as part of our answer
On question 1, what we can tell about the first two stanzas is that they are similar because they talk about when and where the bells are being used and the happiness. The first stanza talks about the use of bells during a happy or festive time of the person's life, and the second stanza talks about the cheerful sound of wedding bells.
On question 2, Poe’s mood gradually changes into a much darker tone between stanzas 1&2 to 3&4. In the 3r and 4th stances, he shows the terror of the bell sounds and describes them as screaming, clanging or roaring. He uses more cacophonous sounds in the 3rd and 4th stanza than the euphonious sounds in the 1st and 2nd stanzas.
On question 3, the sound devices Poe uses to imitate the sound of bells is by using onomatopoeia (the tinkles, clanging, or the beautiful harmony,) repetition (roars, moaning,) alliteration (tales of terror, turbulency tells,) rhyming words (tinkle, oversprinkle) anf euphonious sounds (melody) and cacophonous sounds (melancholy).
On question 4, Poe places a very big emphasis on sound in his poem because he wanted to show clearly the cheerful sounds that correspond with happiness and then the gloomy sounds with the loud, angry tones. This is important because it shows the stages of new life, the joyfulness of childhood, the cheerfulness of a wedding, the obstacles of becoming older, and then the day till their last breath.
REFLECTION:
Throughout this lesson, I’ve learned how important the usage of poetic sound devices are. These poetic devices help with how the stanzas will be delivered and it creates a huge impact on the readers visualizations on the events of the stanzas. For instance, if the first and second stanza was told in a cacophonous sound, we wouldn’t think of them representing the happiness of their life and we would think of it as a dark time of their life. The euphonious tone tells us that the bells represent a harmonious melody and that it is not that same as when we read stanza 3 and 4 of the melancholic and frantic tone. In The Bells we can clearly emphasize which parts should represent which. Although we may know these terms already, this lesson helps us further understand each sound device and how to differentiate what and when it is being used. I also learned how to deeply understand a poem’s usage of diction and imagery now. It can help strengthen the reader’s understanding of the stanzas, as well as their understanding of the text.
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