Bells
At six o'clock of an autumn duskWith the sky in the west a rusty red,The bells of the mission down in the valleyCry out that the day is dead.
The first star pricks as sharp as steel--Why am I suddenly so cold?Three bells, each with a separate soundClang in the valley, wearily tolled.
Bells in Venice, bells at sea,Bells in the valley heavy and slow--There is no place over the crowded worldWhere I can forget that the days go.
Words in this poem
- clang v. t.
- To strike together so as to produce a ringing metallic sound. [L. clangere; akin to Gr. clank.]
- wearily adv.
- In a weary manner.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Bells is in the public domain. This text is taken from Flame and Shadow, Project Gutenberg ebook #591; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Sara Teasdale, Bells, in Flame and Shadow (1920), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #591, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/teasdale-flame-shadow/bells.html, id L16997.
Form and metre
Bells is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 77%). 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.7 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 33% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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.
- 1 -A-A dusk · redA · valley · deadA
- 2 -A-A steel · coldA · sound · tolledA
- 3 -A-A sea · slowA · world · goA
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 iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| At six o'clock of an autumn dusk | 9 | ··˘/··/˘· |
| With the sky in the west a rusty red, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The bells of the mission down in the valley | 11 | ····/˘···/˘ |
| Cry out that the day is dead. | 7 | ······· |
| The first star pricks as sharp as steel-- | 8 | ········ |
| Why am I suddenly so cold? | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| Three bells, each with a separate sound | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| Clang in the valley, wearily tolled. | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Bells in Venice, bells at sea, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Bells in the valley heavy and slow-- | 9 | ···/˘/˘·· |
| There is no place over the crowded world | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Where I can forget that the days go. | 9 | ···˘/···· |
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.