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The Bell


I love thy music, mellow bell,
I love thine iron chime,
To life or death, to heaven or hell,
Which calls the sons of Time.

Thy voice upon the deep
The home-bound sea-boy hails,
It charms his cares to sleep,
It cheers him as he sails.

To house of God and heavenly joys
Thy summons called our sires,
And good men thought thy sacred voice
Disarmed the thunder's fires.

And soon thy music, sad death-bell,
Shall lift its notes once more,
And mix my requiem with the wind
That sweeps my native shore.


Emerson, Ralph Waldo.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) was an American poet,
essayist, and philosopher who was a leading proponent of New
England Transcendentalism. Emerson graduated from Harvard
College in 1821 and was ordained a minister eight years
later. Despite his position, Emerson began to question
Christian doctrines, a doubt that grew following the death
of his wife in 1831. He resigned from the ministry in 1832,
and helped to initiate Transcendentalism in 1836 with the
publication of a book titled Nature. In 1840, Emerson
helped to begin The Dial, which served as an outlet for his
ideas and views on Transcendentalism.