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
When the bridal party
To the church doth hie!"
was among his earliest writings; and The Bells of San Blas was his last
poem, having been written March 15, 1882, nine days only before he
died:--
"What say the Bells of San Blas
To the ships that southward pass
From the harbor of Mazatlan?"
And this last stanza must contain the last words that came from his
pen:--
"O Bells of San Blas, in vain
Ye call back the Fast again!
The Past is deaf to your prayer:
Out of the shadows of night
The world rolls into light;
It is daybreak everywhere."
One of his latest sonnets is entitled Chimes.
"Sweet chimes! that in the loneliness of night
Salute the passing hour, and in the dark
And silent chambers of the household mark
The movements of the myriad orbs of light!"