THE POET OF THE BELLS.
By E.H. Goss.
Longfellow may well be called the Poet of the Bells; for who has so largely voiced their many uses as he, or interpreted the part they have taken in the world's history. That he was a great lover of bells and bell music is evinced by the many times he chose them as themes for his poems; nearly a dozen of which are about them, containing some of the sweetest of his thoughts; and allusions to them, like this from Evangeline,—
Anon from the belfry
Softly the Angelus sounded,"—
are sprinkled all through his longer poems, as well as his prose. The Song of the Bell, beginning,—
"Bell! thou soundest merrily