I have had bells ringing in my head for almost a week in preparation for this presentation. I don't know if I can do it, but I did have to come up with some ideas eventually....
Amanda, Diana and myself were sitting around my apartment in Farrell one night and Diana was reading to us "The Bells" by Edgar Allen Poe. It was funny because one she was finished reading it to us we realized it would be perfect for us to do. Our voices were different pitches already (Amanda's was lower, mine was in the middle, and Diana's was more on the higher side). Then it was just a matter of reviewing the poem and deciding where we would be putting breaks and inventing and interesting way to tie all of our parts together.
"The Bells" was written in 1849.
I
Hear the sledges with the bells-
Silver bells!
What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
In the icy air of night!
While the stars that oversprinkle
All the heavens, seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells-
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.
II
Hear the mellow wedding bells,
Golden bells!
What a world of happiness their harmony foretells!
Through the balmy air of night
How they ring out their delight!
From the molten-golden notes,
And an in tune,
What a liquid ditty floats
To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats
On the moon!
Oh, from out the sounding cells,
What a gush of euphony voluminously wells!
How it swells!
How it dwells
On the Future! how it tells
Of the rapture that impels
To the swinging and the ringing
Of the bells, bells, bells,
Of the bells, bells, bells,bells,
Bells, bells, bells-
To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells!
III
Hear the loud alarum bells-
Brazen bells!
What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!
In the startled ear of night
How they scream out their affright!
Too much horrified to speak,
They can only shriek, shriek,
Out of tune,
In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire,
In a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic fire,
Leaping higher, higher, higher,
With a desperate desire,
And a resolute endeavor,
Now–now to sit or never,
By the side of the pale-faced moon.
Oh, the bells, bells, bells!
What a tale their terror tells
Of Despair!
How they clang, and clash, and roar!
What a horror they outpour
On the bosom of the palpitating air!
Yet the ear it fully knows,
By the twanging,
And the clanging,
How the danger ebbs and flows:
Yet the ear distinctly tells,
In the jangling,
And the wrangling,
How the danger sinks and swells,
By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells-
Of the bells-
Of the bells, bells, bells,bells,
Bells, bells, bells-
In the clamor and the clangor of the bells!
IV
Hear the tolling of the bells-
Iron Bells!
What a world of solemn thought their monody compels!
In the silence of the night,
How we shiver with affright
At the melancholy menace of their tone!
For every sound that floats
From the rust within their throats
Is a groan.
And the people–ah, the people-
They that dwell up in the steeple,
All Alone
And who, tolling, tolling, tolling,
In that muffled monotone,
Feel a glory in so rolling
On the human heart a stone-
They are neither man nor woman-
They are neither brute nor human-
They are Ghouls:
And their king it is who tolls;
And he rolls, rolls, rolls,
Rolls
A paean from the bells!
And his merry bosom swells
With the paean of the bells!
And he dances, and he yells;
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.
THE END
You are going to have to excuse the way my blog looks right now....it's a work in progress and I promise I will finish it soon....
I am writing this entry to the new bloggers on campus. I have written similar entries, but this one is to all you newbies out there. I invite you to read my blog and comment on my past entries. Sometime bringing old arguments back to life proves to find something one did not see the first time around. I also hope that you will work with your blogs to change the colors, title, and personalize it more than just leaving it the plain black and white stuff that Dr. Jerz gave to you. That is just a start. I promise that if you put in the time and effort to really make something of your blog people will come and read it. I will come and read it. I would love to add to my links of online friends. If any of you would like any help just let me know and I will do everything in my power to lend a hand!
Tiff
That's right everyone. We have a week of classes under our belts, we have a ton of homework already, and stress levels are definetly rising. At least its the weekend, right? For girls that means it's time to take care of those things that during the week could not be taken care of. For me and Diana that means a weekend at camp with her family and Amanda Kraeger. We had an amazing time! Sunken Canoe Races (you semi submerge canoes and you hang on to them while racing to the opposite end of the lake) were a blast and Amanda and I kicked Diana's tooshie! I met her family and love them already. Not to mention the camp grounds were beautiful. Then we went caving.
Well we were supposed to go caving in a mud hole provided by Diana's dad, however upon arriving we discovered that the entrance to the cave had closed significantly and we weren't able to head in. We did slide down into the cave just to see what it looked like, but we all agreed that it was too dangerous especially since Amanda and I had never really been caving before. We thought that all was over and after an entire day of preperation that we werent going to get to go afterall, but little did we know that Diana's dad had a back up plan. We headed for Tytoona Caves. They are located between Tyrone and Altoona. There is a river that runs right through the caves and of course we found mud. Well Diana decided that she still wanted her free facial and upon entering the cave put a ton of mud on her face. That was not enough for her however. She had to get the rest of us too! So we all came out of the cave looking like mud monsters. We did get our free facial but we were very dirty none the less.
I think that this was one of the best Labor Days I have had in a really long time. I hope that I will get to go again. I hope everyone elses weekend was amazing too!
Tiff