Method and Madness: An Analysis of Edgar Allan Poe's “The Bells”
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22046/LA.2017.24Keywords:
Trochaic Meter, Rhyme, Parallelism, Assonance, Consonance, Catalexis.Abstract
In this article, U. Marie Engemann has tried to indicate the method and internal cohesion of “The Bells”: a poem by Edgar Allan Poe, regardless of its apparent madness. This poem consists of four stanzas each of which is a symbol of a stage in the human's life for which a specific bell has been dedicated to. This poem follows trochaic meter in which the poet ingeniously has used catalexis in order to imitate the chime of bells. Throughout the poem, he has used different sound devices such as rhyme, sound patterning, alliteration, and onomatopoeia to create parallelism, and accordingly, he has conformed the chime of the bells to the dominant feature of each stage of life; thus, a meaningful cohesion has been created. This article can show how a poet may use different sound devices of his own language to create a parallelism between sound symbolism and meaning. The structure of the article has been changed a little by inserting the figures and the tables in the appendices into its straight text in translation so that it becomes easier for the readers to make a link between discussions and the data presented in each figure or table.
References
Abrams, M. H. (1993). A Glossary of Literary Terms. 6th ed. Fort Worth, TX, USA: Harcourt Brace College Publishers.
Clarke, G. (1991). Edgar Allan Poe: Critical Assessments. Vol. III-Poe the Writer: Poems, Criticism and Short Stories. Mount field, near Roberts bridge, UK: Helm Information.
Engemann, U. M. (2015). Method and Madness: An Analysis of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Bells", Heinrich–Heine University of Dusseldorf.
https://uni-duesseldorf.academia.edu/UMarieEngemann.(25May, 2017).
Fabb, N. (1997). Linguistics and Literature: Language in the Verbal Arts of the World. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
Hinton, L. & Bolinger, D. (2003). Sound Symbolism. International Encyclopedia of Linguistics. Oxford University Press.
http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195139778.001.0001/acref-9780195139778. (10 March, 2015).
Jakobson, R. (1960). Closing Statement: Linguistics and Poetics. Style in Language. Thomas Seboek.
Maryland Public Television. Four stanzas of the poem “The Bells” in Poe’s handwriting. MPT: Knowing Poe.
http://knowingpoe.thinkport.org/library/source_life.asp#bells.(27March, 2015).
Montgomery, M.; Durant, A.; Fabb, N.; Furniss, T. and Mills, S. (2007). Poetic Form. Ways of Reading, 195–247. 3rd Ed. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
Plett, H. F. (2010). Literary Rhetoric. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill.
Poe, E. A. (1994). The Complete Illustrated Stories and Poems. London, UK: Chancellor Press.
Sova, D. B. (2007). Critical Companion to Edgar Allan Poe: A Literary Reference to his Life and Work. Revised. New York, NY, USA: Facts on File, Inc.
