Song of the Bell
Bell! thou soundest merrily,When the bridal partyTo the church doth hie!Bell! thou soundest solemnly.When, on Sabbath morning,Fields deserted lie!
Bell! thou soundest merrily;Tellest thou at evening,Bed-time draweth nigh!Bell! thou soundest mournfully.Tellest thou the bitterParting hath gone by!
Say! how canst thou mourn?How canst thou rejoice?Thou art but metal dull!And yet all our sorrowings,And all our rejoicings,Thou dost feel them all!
God hath wonders many,Which we cannot fathom,Placed within thy form!When the heart is sinking,Thou alone canst raise it,Trembling in the storm!
About this text
Song of the Bell is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Project Gutenberg ebook #1365; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Song of the Bell, in The Complete Poetical Works (1839–1882), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1365, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/longfellow-poems/song-of-the-bell.html, id L18055.
Form and metre
Song of the Bell is 24 lines in 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is trochaic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.0 syllables. 11 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 8% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic trimeter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 2 --A--A merrily · evening · nighA · mournfully · bitter · byA
- 3 ---AA- mourn · rejoice · dull · sorrowingsA · rejoicingsA · all
- 4 --A--A many · fathom · formA · sinking · it · stormA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against trochaic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Bell! thou soundest merrily, | 7 | ··/˘/˘˘ |
| When the bridal party | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| To the church doth hie! | 5 | ····· |
| Bell! thou soundest solemnly. | 7 | ··/˘/˘˘ |
| When, on Sabbath morning, | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| Fields deserted lie! | 5 | ·˘/˘· |
| Bell! thou soundest merrily; | 7 | ··/˘/˘˘ |
| Tellest thou at evening, | 6 | /˘··/˘ |
| Bed-time draweth nigh! | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Bell! thou soundest mournfully. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Tellest thou the bitter | 6 | /˘··/˘ |
| Parting hath gone by! | 5 | /˘··· |
| Say! how canst thou mourn? | 5 | ····· |
| How canst thou rejoice? | 5 | ···˘/ |
| Thou art but metal dull! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And yet all our sorrowings, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And all our rejoicings, | 7 | ··/˘˘/˘ |
| Thou dost feel them all! | 5 | ····· |
| God hath wonders many, | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| Which we cannot fathom, | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| Placed within thy form! | 5 | ····· |
| When the heart is sinking, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Thou alone canst raise it, | 6 | ·˘/··· |
| Trembling in the storm! | 6 | /˘˘··· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.