Poetry Analysis Essay on "The Bells" and "Spirits of the Dead" by Allan Poe

Introduction

The two poems; "The Bells" and "Spirits of the Dead" are both literary works by Allan Poe. The two poems discuss different themes and are set in different settings altogether. The poem "Bells" talks about bells in different situations and their ringing provides meaning to what he intends to portray. The other poem talks about death and a number of its illusions. The two poems have employed the use of languages that depict different tones which support the themes of the poems.

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To start with, the poem " The Bells" begins with a tone that depicts excitement and some sort of carefree scenario. The bells are said to tinkle and make the stars in heaven to twinkle. "while the stars that oversprinkle All the heavens, seem to twinkle with a crystalline delight. The use of the words "twinkle" and "delight" in this line of stanza one helps in establishing the tone and mood in this particular stanza. It shows that the speaker is so much relaxed and has no worry whatsoever. The tone in this stanza makes it effective to deliver the theme of happiness by the writer of the poem.

As the poem progresses, the chiming of the wedding bells depicts a tone of merriment such as is found in a wedding setting. " hear the mellow wedding bells, golden bells". Here, the use of the phrase "golden bells" implies the value and worth of the bells and the sound they produce. Gold is expensive, (Aitola et al. 2016). Its use in this context creates the impression of exquisiteness and value. It becomes clear that the speaker is at ease and is impressed with the merry surrounding in the wedding. The chiming of the bells creates happiness and harmony. The third line of the second stanza reads "what a world of happiness their harmony foretells". The line shows that the speaker gets a longing for a world filled with happiness derived from listening to the harmonious sound of the ringing bells. The tone of the poem at this point changes to a yearning and longing tone. This further develops and builds the theme of happiness.

Stanza three of this poem has a totally different tone altogether. The sound of the bells changes to one that is not impressive and not pleasing at all as described in line twenty of this stanza. "how they Clang, and crash, and roar." The bells are now banging and roaring and they create fear and despair. At this point, the poem gains a despairing tone full of fear and horror. This tone is established by the use of the terms. The personification of danger by the speaker of the poem aid to create this kind of tone. This is done in line thirty of this stanza. "how the danger sinks and swells. Line thirty-one of the same stanza creates an angry tone and mood, "by the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells." This tone if achieved further through the further use of personification where the bells are depicted as being angry. The despairing and angry tone of this stanza creates the theme of anger, fear, and desperation.

The fourth stanza of this poem has a melancholy and sad tone. In line five, the speaker says, "how we shiver with affright". Their shivering is caused by the melancholy of the tone produced by the drums. His sadness is felt when he calls the steeple residents ghouls. He refuses to consider them to be human. "they are neither man nor woman." The writer continues to use personification to establish the tone in the poem. Line thirty-five of the fourth stanza reads, "to the sobbing of the bells." Bells that once chimed and rang with harmony are now seen to be sobbing and instead of producing a sweet sound, they are now groaning.

In the poem " spirits of the dead," Poe continues to use language to achieve the tone of the poem, which in turn contributes to the major themes of the poem. The first two stanzas find the speaker consoling a person who will one day succumb to death. He gives hope to this person by telling them that they will not be lonely as their forefathers are in the afterlife and they will obviously offer a company. "Their will shall overshadow thee". This is the reassuring statement used by the speaker it the last two lines of the second stanza. These two stanzas employ a sad as well as a hopeful tone. The sadness comes to play when the speaker talks about the solitude and silence associated with death in the first line of stanza two. Hope is seen all along these two stanzas as they serve as consolation. These two tones bring about the theme of hope, fear, and superstition. The speaker believes that the dead will overshadow the newly dead.

The speaker is so much depressed and in fact angry with death for taking the lives of people that he valued. His anger comes to the surface when he talks of the "grey tombstones" in the second line of the first stanza. His anger creates an angry tone to the poem. He considers life to be unfair to him. He cannot comprehend why his loved ones had to die. His anger is also seen when he talks of the mid-dark thoughts of death. Personification is used here to give death the ability to think. Since he has no any particular liking of death, he describes it as having such thoughts in his anger. The angry tone of the poem at its first part concurs to the main of the poem which is death.

Towards the end of the poem, the tone changes to a resignation tone. The speaker seems to have lost the will to fight and his condemnation for death. He changes the terms he had previously used at the beginning of the poem and uses words and phrases that are somehow not so crude. He uses the terms "dark" in reference to death in place of "tombstone". He also uses the words "breath", "mist" and "breeze" as opposed to "red" and "fever" that he used at the beginning of the poem. This is an indication of his hopelessness and resignation that he finds himself in. he realized that destiny has to take his its course and cannot be stopped. The universe will follow its own way and destiny independently whether consciousness is there or not (Stenger, 1969). He learns this and wills himself to be swayed by life instead of waging a fight.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Poe uses language in these two poems to achieve the tone of the poems. The tone that he attains is also seen to agree with the major themes of the poems.

Works Cited

Aitola, Kerttu, et al. "Carbon nanotube-based hybrid hole-transporting material and selective contact for high-efficiency perovskite solar cells." Energy & Environmental Science 9.2 (2016): 461-466

Yurchenko, Sergey. "Self, time, and reality in quantum stream of consciousness." NeuroQuantology 14.3 (2016).