Aim: How does Edgar Allan Poe’s, “The Bells” convey and reinforce the meaning of the life cycle through his choice of poetic sound devices?
Overview: Our class was notified the day before we are scheduled to have English that we would be engaging in the class remotely (asynchronously), as Ms. Peterson had other matters to attend to. Thus, a lot of the “group” work was often done individually, or with only a select few students from the class that we were able to exchange ideas with. Ms. Peterson instructed us to try and meet with fellow team members if we could, but I was not able to - although I did discuss some of the questions with friends that share the same class period to have some semblance of “group work” that I am used to in this class.
Do Now: The Google Slides posted instructed the class to engage in a timed teamed activity where the teams would have two minutes to name as many different kinds of bells that make sound as possible. The five that I came up with in that time limit were as follows: sleigh bells, door bells, school bells, cow bells, and the famous Liberty Bell (which technically used to make sound before it was retired as a national artifact). Supposedly the team who came up with the most unique and cohesive list of bells would be awarded team points, but those instructions were not applicable as Ms. Peterson was not available to dole out points.
The Liberty Bell - a national American landmark/artifact
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Our first assignment, given on the second slide of the attached Google Slides for the lesson, was to read a short story about a man none other than Edgar Allan Poe himself. The story, titled “Oh Woe Is Poe!” (linked here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cPfYjmoyLzpq9gsuLNNGZNwB6El9U8IN/view) follows the life story of the famous poet and the way that he seems to be a magnet for bad luck - in nearly every paragraph, the author references Poe losing someone close to him, commonly to tuberculosis. As Poe enters a period of grief, he succumbs to alcoholism and eventually dies of “congestion of the brain”, a common diagnosis given when the doctors simply had no idea what the cause of death was (although the author speculates he could have died of rabies). Even with no directions for a “whole class discussion”, it’s clear that this story was a good segway into a class speaking about how Poe alludes to the life cycle of humanity in the poem we would be analyzing - “The Bells”.
A picture of Edgar Allan Poe, the poet we focused on during this lesson.
Poetic Sound Devices: The next three slides dealt with the various poetic sound devices that we would be examining in various works of poetry, including “The Bells” by Poe. The given definition for music or sound devices was: “convey and reinforce meaning (or experience) through the use of sound”. Poetic sound devices in terms of connotation can be split into two distinct categories: cacophonous sound and euphonious sound.
Cacophonous sound is heard when a group of words, mixed together, sounds harsh and dissonant. An obvious negative connotation can be associated with this type of sound. This word comes from the Greek word that means “bad sound”, and is often heard in everyday situations: people yelling, a musical group playing in a minor key, etc. Cacophony is often used to convey negative feelings and/or actions such as violence, chaos, loud noises, depression, etc. in poetry and other forms of literature.
Common sounds associated with cacophony include harsh consonants such as (k, t, g, d, p, b, q, c, and x) and hissing sounds with the consonant/blends (-ch, -sh, and s).
In “teams”, we were given two examples of phrases that included cacophonous words (one of which was the one given above) and were asked to highlight the cacophonous words. These phrases were:
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!” (“The Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll)
“I gave him a description of cannons, culverins, muskets, carabines, pistols, bullets, powder, swords, bayonets, battles, sieges, retreats, attacks, undermines, countermines, bombardments…” (Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift)
The diction (or word choice) in both quotes accurately portrays the negativity of the given scene that the author was trying to convey.
Euphonious sound is the sound you hear when a group of words mixed together give off a pleasant sound and feeling. Positive connotation is typically associated with euphonious sound, and is considered the direct opposite of cacophony. Euphony is used to make your writing sound more pleasing or “attractive”, or as if it has a melody to it like a piece of music (euphony makes your writing sound more harmonious).
Common sounds associated with euphonious sounds include all of the vowels (a, e, i, o, and u) as well as select consonants (l, m, n, r and softer f and v sounds) which are labeled as harmonious as well as “softer” consonants/blends such as (w, s, y and th or wh).
In “teams”, we were given two examples of phrases that included cacophonous words (one of which was the one given above) and were asked to highlight the cacophonous words. These phrases were:
“Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness” (“Ode to Autumn” by John Keats)
“While the stars that oversprinkle/All the heavens seem to twinkle” (“The Bells” by Edgar Allan Poe)
For a more in-depth understanding of cacophony and euphony, consider watching this video from Oregon State University: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzELOczXWOY
A more assorted list of general poetic sound devices was also provided, which included the following vocabulary words:
Alliteration: a stylistic device in which consecutive words or words that occur close together in a series all begin with the same first consonant letter or sound
Onomatopoeia: a word which imitates the natural sound of a thing.
Repetition: repeating words, phrases, lines, or stanzas. Repetition is used to emphasize a feeling or idea, create rhythm, and/or develop a sense of urgency
Rhyme: a repetition of similar sounds in two or more words (especially common at the ends of words). Rhyme is pleasing the ear and also lends a sense of rhythm and order to the language.
perfect rhyme: occurs when stressed syllables of the words, along with all subsequent syllables, share identical sounds
imperfect/slant rhyme: involves the repetition of similar sounds that are not quite as precise as perfect rhyme
Note: All definitions have been copied from the lesson (and were given to us by Ms. Peterson) to accurately portray the exact meanings that our teacher wished for us to take away from the lesson.
“The Bells” by Edgar Allan Poe
We were provided with this poem over the course of six slides - I have copied it here for your reference (you can find it at the bottom of this blog). For a visual and audio reference, please see this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Al1i600VJH8
Analysis of Poetry: Once we had completed reading the poem, Ms. Peterson had us fill out a chart that would have us outline the meaning of each stanza and each type of bell, then the sound devices used, and the effect of the sound devices we identified.
Stanza One: Silver Bells
These bells were most likely used on sleighs, as sleigh bells (obviously during the winter). A positive connotation can be associated with these bells. The sound devices identified were:
repetition and onomatopoeia: “How they tinkle tinkle tinkle, in the icy air of night”
By repeating the word “tinke” the reader is able to hear the tinkling of the bells through onomatopoeia, and repeating the word over and over again drills the sound of these bells into the back of your mind. This is a positive sound combination, so this stanza was considered more euphonious.
Stanza Two: Golden Bells
These bells were definitely representative of the bells that are rung on wedding days (such as church bells). Weddings are associated with a positive type of love, so this stanza was positively connotative. The sound devices identified were:
diction: “To the turtledove that listens, while she gloats” and onomatopoeia: “ “From the molten golden notes, all in tune”
Poe associates positive colors (such as the color gold) with the sound that the bells make. These sounds are very harmonious, so the overall effect would be one of euphony. The overall mood is very positive, and an “air of cheer” surrounds this stanza.
Stanza Three: Brazen Bells
The brazen bells can be best described as alarm bells that have been sounded. Alarm is associated with danger and/or uncertainty, and so the connotation has suddenly turned very negative. Examples of sound devices are:
diction: “What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency yells” and cacophony: “clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire”
Very cacophonous words were used in this section of stanza in an effort to place a negative effect on the sounds that we “hear” in the poem. Directly from my answer: “The overall mood is one of terror and danger, because the negative connotation of the words such as “clamorous” give the effect that the bells are just as scared and confused as the events their sounds represent.” As I said earlier, the tone is cacophonous.
Stanza Four: Iron Bells
The iron bells represent solemnity and ceremony - possibly funeral. These tones have a more negative connotation attached to them. Sound devices identified were:
diction: “At the melancholy menace of their tone!” and repetition: “To the sobbing of the bells; Keeping time, time, time,”
The specific word choice in this stanza such as “melancholy menace” and “sobbing” give off a very somber effect, and a feeling of sadness/solemnity. These words, feelings, and phrases are commonly associated with the idea of death - so I would describe this stanza as very cacophonous.
The final piece of the lesson was another “team” exercise that entailed answering analysis questions about the poem we had completed reading/organizing. We were instructed to rephrase all of the questions as part of our answers. Unfortunately there is no group discussion I can reference in this blog, so instead I will explain what I answered for each question.
Question One: Analyze the first two stanzas. How do they compare, in terms of similarity?
It’s clear from my analysis chart that the first two stanzas had something very large in common - the fact that they were both overwhelmingly euphonious. I then went on to analyze the meaning of the poem further, speaking to how the silver bells represent a happiness within childhood innocence, and the golden bells representing a mature happiness that comes with getting married and starting a chapter of your adult life.
Question Two: Now, compare the bells in stanzas 1 and 2 with the bells in stanzas 3 and 4. How does Poe’s mood shift in his poem?
Poe’s mood shifted very quickly from the first two stanzas to the final two - from positive to negative. Directly from my answer: “As the happiness of early life dies out and the maturity of alarm and solemn bells are brought in, Poe shows this shift in mood through his drastic change in word choice.”
Question Three: How does Poe use sound devices to imitate the sound of bells?
Compile a list of the devices you believe he used.
Based on the aim from this lesson, it’s clear that sound devices are used in poetry to imitate the sound of the subject (in this case, bells) to convey an idea or feeling. Poe “heard” the bells in his head and used many different devices to explain to the reader what he hears and exactly what the reader should “hear”/interpret to fully understand the piece. Using the different kinds of sounds helped Poe portray “positive, negative, and lilting melodic-like qualities to the poem”. The devices that I identified were: euphony, cacophony, and rhyme - which can all be described as types of onomatopoeia (in the way that Poe used them).
Question Four: This poem is as much about sound as it is about meaning.
Why do you think Poe places a heavy emphasis on sound in this poem?
What message does it help to express?
How is this poem symbolically a metaphor for life?
For this question, it may be simplest to insert what I detailed, as it covers everything that needs to be said (in my opinion). “Poe places a heavy emphasis on sound in this poem because it’s entirely about something in life that gives sound to the world - bells. Based on the way they sound, they have different meanings (they go hand in hand). It’s trying to express that life takes through a host of different emotions and feelings - both good and bad. By shifting the mood of the poem through the way that the bells sound, Poe shows how life goes from being positive to negative as you get older and deal with more of the hardship that the world throws at you.”
Reflection:
Overall, this lesson was definitely a valuable one - even if completed asynchronously. The major takeaways from this lesson were definitely learning about the different types of poetic sound devices and how to identify/analyze them in works of literature (and more “minor” ones would be things such as Poe’s backstory). Knowing about the opposites euphony and cacophony as well as the more specific devices (such as alliteration and onomatopoeia) is important knowledge because it can be instrumental in understanding an author’s meaning or even in conveying meaning in a future original work of yours. This class gave us the chance to pore over an infamous poem and dissect all the different sound components of it, to culminate in our overall analysis of what we thought it meant. It’s less about what the answers to the questions were, and more about being able to defend your opinions on the poem using the newfound knowledge acquired during this lesson. To summarize: we learned about different poetic sound devices, because they help us analyze poetry’s meaning more effectively, allowing us to develop our own opinions on works of literature and be able to implement those very same devices in our own writing at some point.
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