| To play in STEREO in a new, 2nd window click:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3STJF455MS8&fmt=18
This is no knock-off of Moriconne, but a 'western' Celtic song about 'the bells' you'll hear ... Edgar Allen Poe whispered to me how this special raven can keep ringing my bells, herself such a belle, keeping me ravenous, seemingly forever more. I think this music is BASED upon a 'hidden' un-named poem by an un-named poet ...
--------------------------
The Bells, Date: c1845
This poem (The Bells) can be interpreted in many different ways, the most basic of which is simply a reflection of the sounds that bells can make, and the emotions evoked from that sound. For example, "From the bells bells bells bells / Bells bells bells!" brings to mind the clamoring of myriad church bells. Several deeper interpretations exist as well. One is that the poem is a representation of life from the nimbleness of youth to the pain of age. Growing despair is emphasized alongside the growing frenzy in the tone of the poem. Another is the passing of the seasons, from spring to winter. The passing of the seasons is often used as a metaphor for life itself. The poem also suggests a Poe theme of mourning over a lost wife, courted in sledge, married and then killed in a fire as the husband looks on. The tolling of the iron bells reflects the final madness of the grief-stricken husband.
The sounds of the verses, specifically the repetitive "bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells," lie on a narrow line between sense and nonsense, causing a feeling of instability. Poe uses the word "tintinnabulation", which many critics believe is merely an onomatopoeic nonsense term. Poe biographer Hervey Allen suggests the word is based on an ancient bell-based instrument called "tintinabula". The series of "bells" echo the imagined sounds of the various bells, from the silver bells following the klip-klop of the horses, to the "dong, ding-dong" of the swinging golden and iron bells, to screeching "whee-aaah" of the brazen bells. The series are always four, followed by three, always beginning and ending on a stressed syllable. The meter changes to iambic in the lines with repeated "bells," bringing the reader into their rhythm. Most of the poem is a more hurried anapestic meter.[citation needed]
The bells of which he writes are thought to be those he heard from Fordham University's bell tower, since Poe resided in the same Bronx neighborhood as that university. He also frequently strolled about Fordham's campus conversing with both the students and the Jesuits.
---
Poe is believed to have written "The Bells" in May of 1848 and submitted it three times to Sartrain's Union Magazine, a magazine run by John Sartain, until it was finally accepted. He was paid fifteen dollars for his work, though it was not published until after his death in November 1849.
Inspiration for the poem is often granted to Marie Louise Shew, a woman who had helped care for Poe's wife Virginia as |
|