Reflection Blog: Poe Dark Romantic Poem

"The Bells" by Edgar Allen Poe regards life from its happy beginning, to its depressing and woeful end. This poem strongly reflects the Romanticism time period because of the powerful ending Poe gives the poem's last stanza. This stanza regards the "bells" representing iron bells that consist of a "melancholy menace of their tone" (Poe). Going back to the beginning of the poem, Poe starts out with a happy and cheerful stanza describing a wintry scene full of bells on that of a sled. This stanza can be highly compared with life in itself. When one is born, a new beginning awaits that individual. They have yet to make any mistakes and obtain any regret in their life. When one thinks of sleigh bells, they associate this noise with merriment and peace. As the poem continues, Poe describes growing up with the bells and their different uses. Stanza two demonstrates the bell's use as a wedding symbol. "What a world of happiness their world foretells!" says Poe in this stanza. Growing up, one longs to experience love and marriage. This unity between two individuals can easily be described using bells because "wedding bells" are often used as a symbol of yet another new beginning with someone's one true love. As the poem continues, the mood becomes darker and more suspenseful. This strong transition, where the bells no longer represent happiness and merriment, demonstrates the Dark Romanticism time period because this era in history regarded death, melancholy, and illness highly (Stade). As compared to the normal Romanticism period, "The Bells" does attribute the era's strong use of nature and life and death. Poe basically states in his poem the transition of beginning of life and how happy it is, to the end of life and the dreadful notion death brings to the table. I think that Poe's poem is very different than his other poems that represent the Dark Romanticism and Romanticism era because other works by Poe usually have one attitude and tone. This poem on the other hand distributes a variety of emotions of both ends of the spectrum. During Poe's time period, I think that the importance of accepting death in one's life was extremely important to individuals. The main reason this poem is "dark" is due to its brutal ending that blatantly says how the end of one's life tolls "iron bells" that are full of melancholy and sadness. Reader's go from being happy and positive to sad and negative simply because of the comparison Poe makes to bells and death. Thinking that bells can be used to describe the beginning of life to the end of life is a depressing feeling which left me over-analyzing everything. This technique by Poe is also another "dark" attribute in his poem. Overall, I enjoyed this poem by Poe because of its range of emotion. It shows how the Romantic period was based on feelings. Many works of literature focuses on one emotion at a time, whereas this poem by Poe contributes many feelings all within one poem. This variety of writing made Poe famous for his creepy and intellectual works of fiction.

"Edgar Allan Poe: The Bells." Poetry Lovers' Page. Web. 17 Jan. 2012.

Stade, George, and Karen Karbiener. "romanticism."Encyclopedia of British Writers, 1800 to the Present, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.