“Avaunt! to-night My heart is light. No dirge will I upraise, But waft the angel on her flight With a pæan of old days! Let _no_ bell toll!―― Lest her sweet soul, Amid its hallow’d mirth, Should catch the note, As it doth float―― Up from the damned earth. To friends above, from fiends below, The indignant ghost is riven―― From hell unto a high estate Far up within the heaven―― From grief and groan, To a golden throne, Beside the King of Heaven.” * * * * * THE BELLS. This selection is a favorite with reciters. It is an excellent piece for voice culture. The musical flow of the metre and happy selection of the words make it possible for the skilled speaker to closely imitate the sounds of the ringing bells. 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. 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 all 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!