I Read This Poem Aloud to Punish My Students

Read part IV of "The Bells" by Edgar Allan Poe:

Hear the tolling of the bells -Iron bells!
What a world of solemn thought their monody compels!
In the silence of the night, How we shiver with affright
At the melancholy menace of their tone!
For every sound that floats
From the rust within their throats
Is a groan.
And the people - ah, the people -
They that dwell up in the steeple,
All alone,
And who, tolling, tolling, tolling,
In that muffled monotone,
Feel a glory in so rolling
On the human heart a stone -
They are neither man nor woman -
They are neither brute nor human -
They are Ghouls: -
And their king it is who tolls: -
And he rolls, rolls, rolls,
Rolls
A paean from the bells!
And his merry bosom swells
With the paean of the bells!
And he dances, and he yells;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the paean of the bells: -
Of the bells:
Keeping time, time, time
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the throbbing of the bells -
Of the bells, bells, bells: -
To the sobbing of the bells: -
Keeping time, time, time,
As he knells, knells, knells,
In a happy Runic rhyme,
To the rolling of the bells -
Of the bells, bells, bells -
To the tolling of the bells -
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells, -
 To the moaning and the groaning of the bells.

What literary term is used way too much in this poem?

a. allusion

b. hyperbole

c. repetition

d. verbal irony

Scroll down for the answer.






















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c. is the correct answer.

Teachers!  The title to this selection is true.  When you need to get your class's attention, pull out this poem and start reading it.  Every time someone speaks, rolls their eyes, put their head down, etc., say that it distracted you and now you have to start all over.  Once you make it all the way through the poem, just pin your copy of the poem to the wall.  Whenever in the future you need to regain their attention, just walk toward the poem and watch the kids get each other in line.  Best form of passive aggressive  classroom discipline ever! 
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