No More Learning

The bells! -ah, the bells!
The little silver bells!
How fairy-like a melody there floats
From their throats--
From their merry little throats--
From the silver, tinkling throats
Of the bells, bells, bells--
Of the bells!

II.

The bells! -ah, the bells!

The heavy iron bells!
How horrible a monody there floats
From their throats--
From their deep-toned throats--
From their melancholy throats!
How I shudder at the notes Of the bells, bells, bells--
Of the bells!

In the autumn of 1848 Poe added another line to this poem, and sent it
to the editor of the "Union Magazine. " It was not published. So, in the
following February, the poet forwarded to the same periodical a much
enlarged and altered transcript. Three months having elapsed without
publication, another revision of the poem, similar to the current
version, was sent, and in the following October was published in the
"Union Magazine. "

3.
This poem was first published in Colton's "American Review" for
December, 1847, as "To--Ulalume: a Ballad. " Being reprinted immediately
in the "Home Journal," it was copied into various publications with the
name of the editor, N. P. Willis, appended, and was ascribed to him.
When first published, it contained the following additional stanza which
Poe subsequently, at the suggestion of Mrs. Whitman, wisely suppressed:

Said we then--we two, then--"Ah, can it
Have been that the woodlandish ghouls--
The pitiful, the merciful ghouls--
To bar up our path and to ban it
From the secret that lies in these wolds--
Had drawn up the spectre of a planet
From the limbo of lunary souls--
This sinfully scintillant planet
From the Hell of the planetary souls? "

4. "To Helen! " (Mrs. S. Helen Whitman) was not published until November,
1848, although written several months earlier. It first appeared in the
"Union Magazine," and with the omission, contrary to the knowledge or
desire of Poe, of the line, "Oh, God! oh, Heaven--how my heart beats in
coupling those two words. "

5. "Annabel Lee" was written early in 1849, and is evidently an
expression of the poet's undying love for his deceased bride,
although at least one of his lady admirers deemed it a response to her
admiration. Poe sent a copy of the ballad to the "Union Magazine," in
which publication it appeared in January, 1850, three months after the
author's death.