In this activity, you'll read and analyze a poem called "The Bells" by Edgar Allan Poe. You will write short answers to a series of questions about how word choice and literary devices in the poem contribute to the tone, mood, meaning, and theme. Then you'll describe how "The Bells" fits into the category of Gothic literature.

The use of words and literary devices allows the author to provide a melancholy tone in his work. In addition to providing meanings for the different conceptions and concepts that we build throughout our lives. In addition, the poem addresses topics such as the unpredictability of the future, the passage of time, fear of death and even death itself.

The poem fits into the Gothic literature exactly because it brings this rambling about death, the haunting, the discomfort and the melancholy.

Explanation:

"The Bells" is one of the best known poems written by Edgar Allan Poe. In this poem he shows how life is fleeting, how things change in meaning and how our age and experience in life change our expectations, fears and interpretations.

The poem shows the meaning of bells during different stages of someone's life. In this case, the author uses several metaphors, honomatopeias and allegories, showing how in the youth the bells are present in moments of joy, fun, construction and positive expectations, however, from the moment when the human being gets older and the unpredictability of the future and the imminent arrival of death become more and more frequent thoughts, the sounds of the bells become agonizing, melancholy, threatening and somber.

what: when quoting a source, use the author’s words verbatim, or word-for-word. this means you shouldn’t change any grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc. put quotations around the words to tell your reader where the quote begins and where it ends.

you also need to acknowledge the author. for example, if using mla format for your research paper, you should have in-text citations with the author’s name and page number listed at the end of each quote.

when: use quotations to provide concrete examples to support your claims. using direct quotations is a great way to build your credibility on the subject. it’s also a good idea to quote your source when the author states things in a powerful way. if you think he or she said it best, then use the exact words to share the ideas.

example: in the short story “a jury of her peers”, mrs. hale compares mrs. wright to her caged bird, saying “she—come to think of it, she was kind of like a bird herself. real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and—fluttery. how—she—did—change” (glaspell).

paraphrasing

what: paraphrasing differs from quoting because you restate the passage in your own words. since you don’t use the author’s words, you don’t need to use quotation marks. however, you still need to acknowledge the author for his or her ideas.

when paraphrasing a text, you should communicate the full meaning of the text; don’t change the meaning. it can be a condensed version of the text, or it could end up being longer than the source it’s paraphrasing.

when: you use paraphrasing when you take notes, or explain a chart or diagram to someone. paraphrasing highlight the important parts of a larger text. it also allows you to simplify the ideas for your readers.

example:

original: “it was no ordinary thing that called her away–it was probably further from ordinary than anything that had ever happened in dickson county. but what her eye took in was that her kitchen was in no shape for leaving: her bread all ready for mixing, half the flour sifted and half unsifted” (glaspell).

paraphrase: as mrs. hales walks around mrs. wright’s home, she notices that the kitchen is in disarray as if she was in the middle of baking bread (glaspell).

anits the secound1

explanation: