The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-06-06
TRAGIC STORY OF pog,s BELLS

Poe's Bells in the original manu-
script. was the other day sos6 az auc-
ton in Philadelphia for S2.Il5. This was
S2,io0 more than Poe received for the
manuscript and the publication rights half
| a century ago
striking instance Of the sarcasm of
destiny. If Poe in his life had received
| as many hundreds OF dollars for the poem
as the owners of the manuscript received
| thousands for the mere autograph thar
| lie would have been coEnforted in its
closing days or might even have been
prolonged TO green and useful old age
For the dissipation which ended in Poe $
fatal debauch at Baltimore. in June. 1919
was prompted by despair, and that despair
resulted partly from domestic and partiv
| from financial troubles
Poe had lost his wife. Virginia GLENN
on January 50. 1s47. Thereafter he was
as one distraught.
Deprived of the companionship and
sympathy Of his child wife" writes A
friendly biographer (Mr. W. F. Gin. ..the
poet suffered what was 10 him the agony
Of utter loneliness Night after night
| he would arise from his sleepIess pillow.
and, dressing himself. wander to the
grave Of his lost one. and throwing him
self down on the cold ground. weep bit
terry for hours at a time. he found il
impossible 20 sleep without the presence
I
time after Virginia's death he seems 10
/ have been desperately III and unnerved.
To deaden his grief he had recourse 70
| liquor and opium. but DR.. Mott warned
his ffiend. Mrs. Marie Louise Shew. that
the invalid had q lesion on one side Of
the brain which would not permit him 10
use stimulan;s or tonics without grave
danger of insanity"
Sick as he was. necessity forced him TO
take up his pen, and il was during these
| last years that he wrote his prose poem
I of Eureka" and lyrics entitled.
''Ulalume,' The Bells and 'Annabel
Lee"
L. was Mrs. Marie Louise Shew who
proved Poe's greatest friend and benefac-
tor in this period of abject misery She
had done what she could by personal min
istrations and by raising subscriptions
from his friends to soothe the last days Of
the dying wife, to secure her decent burial
and TO rescue Poe from the pecuniaryr
difficulties in which the long sickness of
his wife had plunged him.
To Mrs. Shew. also. the widowed Poe
| owed the suggestion for The Bells" 1t
is a strange fact that she had never
found time to read any of the writings
of the poet for whom she felt so deep
sympathy and affection.
One day Poe called on her and said:
J Marie Louise. l have TO write poem. /
have no feeling, no sentiment. no inspira-
ton
His hostess persuaded him to have some
| tea. which she served in the conservatory.
Through the open windows came the
sound of church bells. Mrs. Shew said.
playfully, Here is paper" But the poet.
declining il, declared
Il so dislike the sound of bells tonight
l cannot write. | am exhausted"
The lady then took UP the pen. and.
pretending 10 initiate his handwriting.
wrote The Bells, BY f. A Poe" Then
in pure sportiveness she added this line
The bells. the little silver bells
Poe took the hint and expanded the line
into a stanzt of six lines. Then Mrs.
Shew suggested for the next stanza:-
The heavy iron bellsS
This Poe expanded into eleven additional
lines. He next copied out the poem and
headed it. BY Mrs NJ. L. Shew," remark
ing that it was her poem, as she had
suggested and composed so much Of 1t.
Such was the germ of this remarkable
poem which melodiously mimics, in verbal
the respective metallic tones-silver
golden. brazen and iron. of sleighbels,
wedding bells, steeple bells and alarm
bells.
1t went through no less than three
transformations. however, before II
reached the public in the final form pub
lished in Sartain's Union Magazine. In
November. 1919, one month after Poe s
death. In a note accompanying the poem
in this magazine Mr.. Sartain gave the
following account Of its evolution:
There Is a curious piece of literary his
tory connected with this poem II illus
trates the gradual development of an idea
in the mind of m ma Of original genius.
This poem came into our possession about
a.
Der. 1S4S) 1t then consisted of seventeen
lines About six months afterward We
received the poem enlarged and altered
nearly to its present size and form, and
about three months since the author sent
another alteration and enlargement, in
which condition the poem was left at the
time of his death.
The original version. as we have seen.
contained only seventeen lines. divided
into two stanzas. as follows:
THE BELLS-A SONG.
The bells! Hear the bells,
The merry wedding bells.
The Little silver bells,
How fairyiike a melody there dwells
From the silver tinkling cells
OF the bells.
The bellsi All. the bells,
The heavy iron bells.
Hear the tOlling Of the bells,
Hear the knellS,
How horrible mo1ody there floats
From their thcOats-
From their deep-toned threats!
How ] shudder AZ the notes
From the melancholy threats
OF the bells. bells bells,
OF the bells,
Poe's enemies have charged that h sold
the poem three times over 10 different
magazines. The charge IS entirely false.
Mr. Sartaiu has explained that IL was he
who paid Poe three times for three YER
sions Of The BELLS himself insisting
on so doing because the poems were sub
stantially distinct pieces
In the form he n-st submitted #.
SAYS Mr. Sartain in his reuinisccuces.
consisting of seveuteen lines Of small
merit. he received 81. tut after he had
rewritten and improved 10 10 one hundred
and thirteen lines ne was paid 50 more.
L AZ