| Poe wrote this poem about the church bells of Fordham University,
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| which rang right next to when he lived in the Bronx in 1845.
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| One hundred and 24 years later, hip-hop was born three miles away from this
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| very same spot.
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| This poem has beautiful cadences and rhythms, just listen.
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| Hear the sledges with the bells — Silver bells!
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| What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
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| How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, in the icy air of night!
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| With the stars that oversprinkle With a crystalline delight;
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| Keeping time, time, time, In a sort of Runic rhyme,
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| To the tintinnabulation resonating very fine
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| From the jingling and tinkling of the mellow wedding bells
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| Golden bells! |
| What a world of happiness we know they must fortell!
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| Through the balmy air of night How they ring out their delight! |
| -
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| From the molten — golden notes, And all in tune, hella tight
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| While a liquid ditty floats, on the moon from sounding cells,
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| What a gush of euphony voluminously wells!
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| How it swells! |
| How it dwells On the Future! |
| — how it tells
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| To the swinging and the ringing Of the rapture that impels
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| Of the bells, bells, bells — Check the bells, bells, bells,
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| Go to sleep to the rhyming and the chiming of the bells
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| Rock the Bells
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| Hear the loud alarum bells — Brazen bells!
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| What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!
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| In the startled ear of night How they scream out their affright!
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| Too horrified to speak, only shriek, and ignite
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| In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire,
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| A mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic fire,
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| Leaping higher, higher, higher, with a deep desperate desire,
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| And a resolute endeavor that accentuates the pyre
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| Now — now to sit, or never, by the side of the moon.
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| Oh, the bells, bells, bells! |
| Know that terror’s coming soon
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| How they clang, and they roar! |
| What a horror they outpour
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| On the bosom of the air, with eternity in store
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| How the danger ebbs and flows with the twanging, And the clanging,
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| Yet the ear distinctly tells, In the jangling, And the wrangling,
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| How the danger sinks and swells, in the anger of the bells —
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| Of the bells — Of the bells, bells, bells, bells, Bells, bells
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| Go to sleep to the clamor and the clanging of the bells!
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| Hear the tolling of the bells — Iron bells!
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| What a world of solemn thought their monody compels!
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| In the silence of the night, How we shiver with affright
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| At the melancholy menace of their tone! |
| It excites
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| All alone hear it float like the rust within our throats, it’s a groan
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| And the people — ah, the people — in the steeple, All alone,
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| And who, tolling, tolling, tolling, In that muffled monotone,
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| Feel a glory in so rolling On the human heart a stone —
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| They are neither man nor woman — neither brute nor human
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| They are ghouls and their king well he rolls and he rules
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| A paean from the bells as his merry bosom swells
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| With the paean of the bells! |
| As he dances, and he yells; |
| (peein')
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| Keeping time, time, time, In a sort of Runic rhyme,
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| To the paean of the bells: — To the throbbing of the bells —
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| Keeping time, time, time, As he knells, knells, knells,
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| Go to sleep to the moaning and the groaning of the bells. |