II.

Hear the mellow wedding bells

Golden bells!

What a world of happiness their harmony foretells !
Through the balmy air of night

How they ring out their delight!

From the molten-golden notes,

And all in tune,

What a liquid ditty floats

To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats

On the moon!

Oh, from out the sounding cells,

What a gush of euphony voluminously wells!

How it swells!

How it dwells

On the Future! - - how it tells

Of the rapture that impels

To the swinging and the ringing

Of the bells, bells, bells

Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,

Bells, bells, bells

To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells!

15

20

25

30

35

The text printed in the Union Magazine for December, 1849, inasmuch as it differs radically from the final text, is given here in its entirety:

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,

40

45

In the jangling

And the wrangling,

How the danger sinks and swells,

By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells — 65

Of the bells,

Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,

Bells, bells, bells

In the clamor and the clangor of the bells!

IV.

Hear the tolling of the bells

Iron bells!

What a world of solemn thought their monody compels !

In the silence of the night,

How we shiver with affright

70

Of the bells, bells, bells

To the sobbing of the bells;
Keeping time, time, time,

As he knells, knells, knells,
In a happy Runic rhyme,

To the rolling of the bells

Of the bells, bells, bells:

To the tolling of the bells

Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells-

To the moaning and the groaning of the bells.

TO HELEN

I saw thee once

once only years ago:

(1849)

It was a July midnight; and from out

I must not say how many - but not many.

A full-orbed moon, that, like thine own soul, soaring,

Where no wind dared to stir, unless on tiptoe

10

By thee, and by the poetry of thy presence.

Clad all in white, upon a violet bank

I saw thee half reclining; while the moon

Title To

(U.M., P.P.A.).

5 precipitate: precipitant (U.M.). 18 saw see (U.M.).

Fell on the upturn'd faces of the roses,
And on thine own, upturn'd — alas, in sorrow!

Was it not Fate that, on this July midnight
Was it not Fate (whose name is also Sorrow)
That bade me pause before that garden-gate,
To breathe the incense of those slumbering roses ?
No footstep stirred: the hated world all slept,
Save only thee and me. (Oh, Heaven! — oh, God!
How my heart beats in coupling those two words!
Save only thee and me). I paused - I looked -
And in an instant all things disappeared.
(Ah, bear in mind this garden was enchanted!)
The pearly lustre of the moon went out:

20

25

30

The mossy banks and the meandering paths,

The happy flowers and the repining trees,

Were seen no more: the very roses' odors
Died in the arms of the adoring airs.

35

All

all expired save thee save less than thou:

Save only the divine light in thine eyes

Save but the soul in thine uplifted eyes.

I saw but them

I saw but them

they were the world to me.

saw only them for hours

Saw only them until the moon went down.

40

What wild heart-histories seemed to lie enwritten
Upon those crystalline, celestial spheres!

How dark a wo! yet how sublime a hope!

How silently serene a sea of pride!

45

How daring an ambition! yet how deep –

How fathomless a capacity for love!

But now, at length, dear Dian sank from sight,
Into a western couch of thunder-cloud;

26-28 U. M. and P.P.A. omit the second half of line 26, all of line 27, and the first half of line 28.