Hear the prisoners in the cells-
Prison cells!
What a world
of loneliness their melody foretells!
How they jingle, jingle,
jingle,
In the icy air of night!
While the stars that
oversprinkle
All the heavens, seem to twinkle
With a
crystalline fright;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of
Runic rhyme,
To the horrors that so musically wells
From the
cells, cells, cells, cells,
Cells, cells, cells-
From the
jingling and the horrors of the cells.
II
Hear the mellow prison cells,
High- security cells!
What a
world of emptiness their lonliness foretells!
Through the balmy
air of night
How they cry out their own fright!
From the
molten-powered gloats,
And an in tune,
What a liquid ditty
floats
To the jail bird that listens, while she floats
On the
moon!
Oh, from out the sounding cells,
What a gush of guards
voluminously wells!
How it swells!
How it dwells
On the
Future! how it tells
Of the freedom that impels
To the
freeing and the reaping
Of the cells, cells, cells,
Of the
cells, cells, cells, cells,
cells, cells, cells-
To the
sighing and the lying of the cells!
III
Hear the loud alarum bells-
Breaking out of their cells!
What
a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!
In the startled
ear of night
How they scream out their affright!
Too much
horrified to speak,
They can only shriek, shriek,
Out of
tune,
In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire,
In a
mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic fire,
Leaping higher,
higher, higher,
With a desperate desire,
And a resolute
endeavor,
Now- now to sit or never,
By the side of the
pale-faced moon.
Oh, the cells, cells, cells!
What a tale
their terror tells
Of Despair!
How the guns clang, and clash,
and roar!
What a horror they outpour
On the bosom of the
palpitating air!
Yet the ear it fully knows,
By the twanging,
And the clanging,
How the danger ebbs and flows:
Yet the
ear distinctly tells,
In the jangling,
And the wrangling,
How the danger sinks and swells,
By the sinking or the
swelling in the anger of the cells-
Of the cells-
Of the
cells, cells, cells, cells,
Cells, cells, cells-
In the
clamor and the clangor of the dirty little cells!
IV
Hear the tolling of the cells-
Back to the Cells!
What a
world of solemn thought their monody compels!
In the silence of
the night,
How we shiver with affright
At our melancholy
menace of the Titans!
For every evil that afloats
From the
rust within their throats
Is a fight.
And the Titans- ah, the
Titans-
They that dwell up in the tower,
All Alone
And
who, fighting, fighting, fighting,
In that muffled monotone,
Feel a glory in so rolling
On evil's heart a stone-
They
are neither foe nor friend-
They are neither brute nor human-
They are fighters, and defenders:
And their nemesis it is who
tolls;
And he rolls, rolls, rolls,
Rolls
A paean from the
cells!
And his merry bosom swells
With the paean of the
bells!
And he dances, and he yells;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the paean of the cells-
Of
the cells:
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic
rhyme,
To the terror of the cells-
Of the cells, cells,
cells-
To the sobbing of the cells;
Keeping time, time, time,
As they fight, fight, fight,
In a happy Runic rhyme,
To
the rolling of the cells-
Of the cells, cells, cells:
To the
tolling of the cells,
Of the cells, cells, cells, cells-
cells,
cells, cells-
To the moaning and the groaning of the cells.
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Don't get it? Neither do I, I just wrote it from Edgar Allen Poe's poem "The Bells" it was a weird POEm and it symbolizes a lot, but not one of my best chapters. –sigh- review though, please.
