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A continuing selection of classic and contemporary poems.

Bells

Sara Teasdale

At six o’clock of an autumn dusk
 With the sky in the west a rusty red,
The bells of the mission down in the valley
 Cry out that the day is dead.

The first star pricks as sharp as steel —
 Why am I suddenly so cold?
Three bells, each with a separate sound
 Clang in the valley, wearily tolled.

Bells in Venice, bells at sea,
 Bells in the valley heavy and slow —
There is no place over the crowded world
 Where I can forget that the days go.
Online text © 1998-2008 Poetry X. All rights reserved.
From Flame and Shadow | Macmillian, 1920
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