The Sobbing of the Bells [Midnight, Sept. 19-20, 1881]

by Whitman · Cluster: Death · Silence · Bells

Abstract

A brief free-verse elegy on the tolling bells announcing President Garfield’s death and the nation’s grief; themes of death, bells, the nation and mourning.

Connections

Motifs: Bells, Death Themes & Concepts: Grief and Loss, Nationalism and Patriotism Forms & Genres: Elegy

Testo integrale / Full text

Cluster: SONGS OF PARTING

The sobbing of the bells, the sudden death-news everywhere,
The slumberers rouse, the rapport of the People,
(Full well they know that message in the darkness,
Full well return, respond within their breasts, their brains, the
sad reverberations,)
The passionate toll and clang—city to city, joining, sounding, passing,
Those heart-beats of a Nation in the night.