Keeping time, time, time, In a sort of Runic rhyme, To the paean of the bells: Of the bells: Keeping time, time, time In a sort of Runic rhyme, To the throbbing of the bells 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.
FOR ANNIE (1849)
[The poem is named for Mrs. Annie Richmond, of Lowell, Massachusetts, who with her husband was a devoted and helpful friend of the Poe family. It is a tribute to love. That at least survives death. The dead lover speaks here from the grave as the surviving lover speaks in The Raven, Ulalume, and Annabel Lee. In The Blessed Damosel of Rossetti, which was suggested by The Raven, the condition is reversed: the loved one speaks from heaven to her lover on earth. Killis Campbell cites in explanation a passage from Poe's Mesmeric Revelation: "There are two bodies—the rudimental and the complete; corresponding with the two conditions of the worm and the butterfly. What we call 'death' is but the painful metamorphosis. Our present incarnation is progressive, preparatory, temporary. Our future is perfected, ultimate, immortal. The ultimate life is the full design." See also The Colloquy of Monos and Una.
