By the twanging, And the clanging, How the danger ebbs and flows; 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! Hear the tolling of the bells Iron bells! What a world of solemn thought their monody com pels! 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- All alone, And who tolling, tolling, tolling, 5 10 15 20 25 THE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS Of the bells, bells, bells, bells Bells, bells, bells To the moaning and the groaning of the bells! 73 5 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES AMERICA, 1809-1894 The Chambered Nautilus This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign, The venturous bark that flings On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings And coral reefs lie bare, Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their stream ing hair. Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl; Wrecked is the ship of pearl! And every chambered cell Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell, Before thee lies revealed, Its iris ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed! Year after year beheld the silent toil That spread his lustrous coil; Still, as the spiral grew, 15 20 He left the past year's dwelling for the new, Stole with soft step his shining archway through, Built up his idle door, Stretched in his last found home, and knew the old no more. 5 Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee, Child of the wandering sea, Cast from her lap, forlorn! From thy dead lips a clearer note is born Than ever Triton blew from wreathed horn! 10 While on mine ear it rings, Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, Leave thy low-vaulted past! 15 Let each new temple, nobler than the last, Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea! 20 The Last Leaf I saw him once before, |