Poems (Dorr)/The Bell of St. Paul's

by Julia Caroline Dorr

THE BELL OF ST. PAUL'S

"The great bell of St. Paul's, which only sounds when the King is dead."

Toll, toll, thou solemn bell!
 A royal head lies low,
And mourners through the palace halls
 Slowly and sadly go.
Lift up thine awful voice,
 Thou, silent for so long!
Say that a monarch's soul has passed
 To join the shadowy throng.

Toll yet again, thou bell!
 Mutely thine iron tongue,
Prisoned within yon lofty tower,
 For many a year has hung.
But now its mournful peal
 Startles a nation's ear,
And swells from listening shore to shore,
 That the whole world may hear.

A whisper from the past
 Blends with each solemn tone
That from those brazen lips of thine
 Upon the air is thrown.
Never had trumpet's peal,
 On clarion sounding shrill,
Such power as that deep undertone
 The listener's heart to thrill,

Come, tell us tales, thou bell,
 Of those of old renown,
Those sturdy warrior kings who fought
 For sceptre and for crown.
Tell of the lion-hearts
 Whose pulses moved the world;
Whose banners flew so swift and far,
 O'er land and sea unfurled!

From out the buried years,
 From many a vaulted tomb,
Whence neither pomp nor power could chase
 The dim, sepulchral gloom,
Lo, now, a pale, proud line,
 They glide before our eyes!—
Art thou a wizard, mighty bell,
 To bid the dead arise?

But toll, toll on, thou bell!
 Toll for the royal dead;
Toll—for the hand now sceptreless;
 Toll—for the crownless head;
Toll—for the human heart
 With all its loves and woes;
Toll—for the soul that passes now
 Unto its long repose!