Edgar Allan Poe's "The Bells" is a poem filled with alliteration, assonance, and rhyme. The musical words capture the reader as they pull him in with their rapid, lyrical flow. It consists of four stanzas, each a bit longer than the preceding one. Each stanza has it's own type of metal bell, representing different stages of human life.

The first set of bells that we come across in this piece are the silver bells. These bells represent the first stage of human life: youth. Firstly, the color silver is pure and shiny. This is the way humans come into the world: pure, without harshness. Silver bells are associated with the winter season, which, to some, appears beautiful and untouched, just like a child. The words "merriment" and "jingling",along with the line "In the icy air of night", seem to infer that these bells are being rung around...