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: (Team Challenge)
Create a list of ALL the kinds/types of bells you’ve ever heard. All of our information would be identical on your teammates documents. The team to create a list with the most amount WINS the points! You have only 2 minutes!
My team went to work right after we got into the breakout room, trying to name as many bells as possible since we wanted those points. With everyone collaborating, we were able to come up with 13 bells as followed: doorbell, cowbell, church bell, jingle bell, school bell, liberty bell, bicycle bell, minecraft bell, blue bell, hand bell, alarm clock bell, call bell, and sleigh bell. We came up with the most amount of bells earning us a total of 25 points.
Spirit Reading:
As a class we read a passage called Oh Woe is Poe to learn more about the life of Edgar Allen Poe.
Poetic Sound Devices
Musical or sound devices convey and reinforce meaning (or experience) through the use of sound. There are 6 different types of sound devices:
Cacophony: Cacophony comes from the Greek word meaning, “bad sound.” Or involving or producing a harsh, discordant mixture of sounds. In other words, consider the noises you may hear on a crowded city street: cars honking, people, yelling, dogs barking, etc…
Involves explosive consonants (k, t, g, d, p, b, q, c, x,) and hissing sounds (ch-, sh, s)
Cacophony can be used to convey dark feelings/thoughts, harsh or loud noises chaos, violence or fear.
As we team, we were given two example sentences to highlight/underline words that are cacophonous.
Kevin said that bite, claws, catch were cacophonous in the first one.
Will said that all the words are cacophonous in the second one.
Euphonious: Involving sounds that are soothing or pleasant to the ear. (the opposite of cacophony)
Includes all the vowels, has harmonious consonants (l, m, n, r, softer f and v sounds), and soft consonants or semi-vowels (w, s, y, th, wh).
Euphony is used to make language sound beautiful and melodic. For example, if a writer is describing something they want to make seem attractive, pleasant, or beautiful, one of the best ways of achieving this is to make the language itself sound harmonious.
As a team we were once given another two sentences to highlight/underline words that are euphonious.
As a team we agreed that everything in the first sentence is euphonious.
Kevin said that “while the stars that oversprinkle,” heavens, and twinkle are all euphonious.
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 that 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. There are two types of rhyme:
Perfect rhyme: occurs when stressed syllables of the words, along with all subsequent syllables share identical sounds.
Imperfect Rhyme or “slant rhyme” involves the repetition of similar sounds that are not quite as precise as perfect rhyme.
“The Bells” By Edgar Allan Poe
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
Team Group Work
Analyze the first two stanzas. How do they compare, in terms of similarity?
Both stanzas view the bells in a positive way as both describe how the bells produce melodic and pleasant sounds. The first stanza describes the melodic sounds produced by the silver bells. The second stanza describes the gentle and lovely sounds produced by the golden bell.
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?
Poe’s mood shifts dramatically from a cheerful mood to a darker mood. Stanza 3 describes the sounds of bells during a fire and stana 4 describes the plain sounds of an iron bell. Instead of the pleasant sounds in stanza 1 and 2, it creates a darker and depressing mood.
How does Poe use sound devices to imitate the sound of bells?
Compile a list of the devices you believe he used.
Poe uses sound devices to mimic the sounds of the bells and it adds to the mood of the bells.
Cacophony
Euphony
Alliteration
Repetition
Rhyme
Onomatopoeia
This poem is much about sound as it is about meaning.
Why do you think Poe places a heavy emphasis on sound in this poem?
What message does it help to express?
How is this poem symbolically a metaphor for life?
Poe places a heavy emphasis on sound in this poem to allows us to know the difference between the different sounds of each bell. Each bell with its unique sounds convey a different message, where some create cheerful moods while other create depressing moods. This poem is symbolically a metaphor for life as music reflects what is happening in our life. During our youths, bells sound pleasant and as you grow up and marry you hear the sounds of the golden wedding bells. As you get older, the more you learn about what’s around you and the dark reality which is present in the brazen and iron bells representing death and catastrophes.
Reflection
During today’s lesson, I learned about the different types of poetic sound devices which are cacophony, euphony, alliteration, onomatopoeia, repetition, and rhyme. I explored how these different poetic sound devices are used in the poem “The Bells” by Edgar Allan Poe. Each of these devices have different functions. Cacophony creates a harsh, discordant mixture of sounds to often convey dark feelings. On the other hand, euphony involves soothing or pleasant sounds making the language beautiful and melodic. Alliteration uses consecutive words or words that occur close together in a series that begin with the same consonant letter or sound. Onomatopoeia imitates the natural sound of a thing. Repetitions are repeating words, phrases, lines, or stanzas. This is used to emphasize a feeling, create rhythm, and develop a sense of urgency. Rhyme is used to please the ear and lend a sense of rhythm and order to the language. There are two different types of rhyme, perfect and imperfect rhyme. I learned about these poetic sounds devices to better understand how poets use these to structure their poems and bring the poems to life. As well as conveying a message through these sounds which was shown in “The Bells,” Edgar Allan Poe was able to use the sound devices to create this poem which conveys a symbolic metaphor for life. I will use what I learned about poetic sound devices in my poems that I will create, such as the poems for the poem anthology project, to enhance my poems to create mood, structure, and convey and reinforce the meaning or experience of poetry to the readers.
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